We drove through Oregon and crossed the border to another new state for us, Washington.  To say the drive was beautiful would be an understatement.  Nature does grow wild here and there is very little to interfere with it. 

When we decided it was time to stop, we checked the internet and found the Elk Ridge Campground on the Chinook Scenic Byway, about half an hour from Mt. Rainier National Park.  

The campground is unique, to say the least.  Try to imagine the side of a mountain, with the Naches River running next to it, now add a forested campground designed and decorated in the theme of Route 66 – complete with a man-made ghost town, old antique equipment, cabins with funny, quirky names, and old signs.  The owner was very friendly and gave us free firewood which we put to good use.

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington – July 15 – 16, 2019

The next morning, we drove down a very forested and winding road to Mount Rainier National Park.  Though we had a good view of the mountain from the road the previous day, today it was covered in fog.

The mountain is the tallest volcano in the Cascade Mountain Range, at 14,410 feet, and has the most glaciers in the continental United States.  These massive rivers of ice (there are 25 major glaciers on Mount Rainier), up to 750 feet deep, run down all sides of the mountain. On the summit, though, steam escapes, a reminder that Mt. Rainier is still an active volcano.

We first secured a campsite at White River Campground, several miles into the park.  There are no amenities at the campground, as in all national parks, just a pretty spot in a forested area.  Then on to the visitors center in the northeastern corner of the park, Sunrise Visitors Center, a ten-mile drive from the campground and the highest point (at 6,400 feet) that a car is allowed to go inside the park. 

At Sunrise we chose to take one of the trails, the three-mile round-trip hike, with an elevation of 500 feet, to Frozen Lake, the main source of drinking water for the Sunrise area of the park.  As we started up, we noted that we were not the first Israelis here.

The day was chilly, in the 50s F, and there were intermittent mist and rain and enough fog to almost totally block out Mt. Rainier.  But as the trail wound up, what we could see – the trees and the wildflowers and the snow near Frozen Lake – were beautiful.  We could not see Mt. Rainier, hidden in all that fog, but we knew it was there.

Back at the campground: tired, cold, and slightly wet but with a comfortable feeling of accomplishment, as we had challenged ourselves on a slightly more difficult walk than usual.  (A ranger told us that trails that are designated as easy on Mt. Rainier would be called moderate at most any other park.  It is, after all, Mt. Rainier, she said.) At night, though not freezing, the temperature was in the 40s and our nice, dry RV kept us comfortable; of course, sweats, two blankets, and turning on the furnace a bit helped too.  We love to rough it. 

Day 2 at Mt. Rainier

We would like to say it was a quiet night but it rained the entire time and the raindrops falling from the trees above us onto the metal roof of the RV did become annoying; however, it was surely better than being in a tent.  Our first order of business was to change campgrounds so that we could see another side of the park, from the Sunrise area to the Paradise area in the southwestern part of the park.  As soon as we arrived, we searched for a first-come first-served site and when we found an open spot, registered for it via a vending machine; like the previous night, it was $10 for seniors. 

We then started exploring and came upon a lovely waterfall, Christine, then continued on to Narada Falls and took a short but steep path downhill to the bottom of the falls.  The power of the waterfalls was impressive!

We ate lunch next to Narada Falls and drove up to the very crowded visitors center, watched a film about the park, and headed to the Skyline Trail.  It was listed as strenuous (if you did the whole trail) and was very steep, straight up, and we decided to do part of it.  We figured we would keep going and stop when it became too difficult.  Often, we would say that we will go to a certain point and then turn back, but then there was something more interesting just beyond, and we would continue.  Until we decided to sit for a while. 

We were rewarded with a beautiful sight of the glaciers on Mt. Rainier.  As we sat watching the mountain, the fog began to lift, ever so slowly, and the mountain began to come into view.  It is a monster of a mountain; tough-looking and foreboding, just sitting out there – for now, quiet, but you can feel its strength. 

And we knew that even with the lifting fog, there were still several thousand feet of mountain that we could not see.

Mt. Rainier is a destination for serious climbers, the first we’ve seen on our travels.  About 10,000 people each year attempt to reach the summit (14,410 feet); about half make it.  But there are many trails, including the amazing-sounding Wonderland Trail, a 93-mile hiking trail that goes around the park, going over many of Mt. Rainer’s ridges.  Not for us, but one of the beautiful things about the park is that there is something for everyone.

On the Skyline Trail we saw a large group of school children from Shanghai, traveling in the States for two weeks.  And we met up with a group of day school girls from the eastern part of the U.S. who were also walking the trail (we spoke with them when they stopped to take a picture of the group; the telltale long skirts walking up a the side of a mountain was a hint).

Back at our campground, the weather was much better than the previous evening and we settled in for a quiet night. 

Mt. Rainier is a great park.  And there is so much to it – the mountain is just the center: trees, tall trees, very tall trees, waterfalls all over, mountains that are active volcanoes, wildflowers galore – on the sides of the road and in the meadows – all adding a cascade of color to nature’s picturesque scenery.

---

 [SB1]