Now I can finally say that I have been to he mountain that is on my license plate. For those of you who don't know, Mt. Rainer is a HUGE active volcano that looms up out of the clouds and can be seen from miles and miles away in all directions. If you've seen a Washington state license plate, that mountain is Mt. Rainer.
Carol was so excited about seeing Mt. Rainer, that she was literally bouncing off the walls for days, and needless to say, she was pretty happy when we finally arrived. The drive took us about 2 hours from Elizabeth's house, which was actually longer than I had expected.
Once we got there, there's really not a whole lot to say. Mt. Rainer is HUGE! Its covered in snow and glaciers, and it has the unique ability to appear like you are never getting close to it. It seems like as you walk closer to it, it just gets farther away (a tourist brochure actually said this too). We walked on a short trail at the base of the mountain which was beautiful. There were just endless fields of wildflowers and patches of snow. The snow fascinated us, especially since we had spent the last few days sweating like you wouldn't believe. It was still really hot while we were here, but the snow was still there, so that was interesting to me. I understand why there was snow on the mountain itself, but I didn't really understand why there was snow on the ground at the bottom. If you actually walk to hike ON Mt. Rainer, they recommend that you go with a guide and have a lot of climbing experience. According to another brochure, people who climb Mt. Everest typically "practice" by climbing other large mountains first - Mt. Rainer being one of those mountains. So for non-skilled climbers like us, the base of the mountain was the only place we walked.
The towns outside of the National Park were adorable. Directly outside one of the entrance gates was a town called Alpine. Or what used to be town called Alpine. 2 people, an older man and woman still live there, and they have painted their own sign that says "Welcome to Alpine - Population 2". Right by the sign is a house/store, so we went in and met the woman, and she told us that the town doesn't actually exist anymore, and her and her husband are the only ones who still live there. I was fascinated by that.
A few more miles down the road is an old train, that has been turned into a restaurant in another town that can't have more than 200 people in it, so thats where we ate dinner.
I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:
(I'm sorry, but this sign is just too funny to me.)
(Mt. Rainer)
(Glaciers on Mt. Rainer)
(more glaciers)
(Wildflowers and other mountains in the Cascades)
(the Paradise Inn - I want to stay here one day)
(all of us)
(This is written on the stairs leading to the most popular trail at the park.)
(Jan and me - We're pointing just in case you can't see the giant mountain behind us.)
(Mt. Rainer with no people in the picture)
(wildflowers, snow, and a giant volcano - all in one picture)
(waterfall that's being fed by the melting glaciers)
(another picture of the waterfall)
(all of us by the waterfall - we really liked the waterfall if you can't tell)
(playing in the snow)
(the former town of Alpine, Washington)
(the restaurant we ate dinner at)
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