Time to visit another national park. We headed out of Poulsbo, made a couple shopping stops, and arrived at an RV park just 1/2 mile from the park entrance. Caught a short glimpse of Mt. Rainier on the drive. The weather has been sketchy...but we woke up to sunshine and clouds the next morning.
A few facts:
1. Mt. Rainier is an active volcano that last erupted in 1894 - Hence, we did not worry about our day.
2. It stands 14,409 feet tall. The first ascent was in August 1870. Today, climbers come from all over the world to attempt a climb. About a week before we arrived, three climbers needed rescue. Three park rangers answered the call. Two are in serious condition in the hospital and the third fell to his death. They have not yet recovered his body due to high winds. All three climbers survived. It's been top news all over the state.
3. You often cannot see it, but when you can, it's magnificient.
4. It was established in 1899 as the fifth national park in the U.S.
There are three lodges in the park. We stopped at the Longmire Historic District where the Longmire Inn is located. It's an old hotel with a long porch full of rockers. Longmire elevation is 2700 ft.
This is the view from the porch. The clouds increased during the day so the mountain only peeked out as the clouds moved by.
More of the historic area - loved seeing the old bus.
Mt. Rainier NP is a hikers paradise. There are trails of all levels everywhere. Our intention to do some hiking got cooled by the wetness and the mud from all the rain the day before.
We stopped at Narada Falls and Christine Falls...
...which Finn enjoyed along with us. It's been cool enough to leave him in the car while do things he is not allowed to do - like walk on the trails and go into hotels.
There was a huge rainstorm here in November 2006 in which 18 inches of rain fell in 36 hours. It did enormous damage in the park washing out roads, campgrounds, and electricity. Mudslides covered some of the roads and poured into the river canyon. Today it is filled with rocks and dead trees with only a narrow river running through.
Peek-a-boo. We see you... Most of the day, it was just clouds and not a sign of the mountain.
Mostly hiding, but almost there.
Driving through the park on our way to Paradise, we saw scenes like this. Paradise is at an elevation of 5400 ft. (almost like home!) on the South slope of the mountain. It's the main area everyone wants to see - and there's lots there.
There's a beautiful Visitors Center where you can learn all about the park and buy an assortment of items with Mt. Rainier emblazoned on them. It was built in 2008, is not a modern design, but rather echos the architecture of the time the inns were built.
Oooh - a mountain with no top at Paradise... Paradise does hold a few snow records: In 1971 it held the world record for the greatest amount of winter snowfall - 1122 inches. It holds the Cascade Range record for the most snow on the ground - 367 inches in 1956.
We actually spoke with people preparing to get on the mountain. They had a whole carload of
equipment to put in their backpacks.
Finn is a magnet for little kids (big ones too) and we're impressed how gentle he is with the little ones.
This is the Paradise Inn. It's a long building with little hint of the beauty inside.
It's all hand hewn - even the furniture - with fireplaces at both ends.
The diningroom. It hadn't opened when Ed took this photo, but minutes later it was full of people taking in the surroundings with lunch...including us.
Our last view as we left the park. The clouds covering most of the mountain but showing us just
enough to remember how majestic it is.
It began to rain in the evening and didn't let up all night. We had to cross the Cascades to escape the rain. Mud everywhere!! The Eastern slope of the Cascades is high desert, sunny almost every day, and may provide me with a chance to get ride of the moss growing all over me.
More later.
No comments:
Post a Comment