Mt. Rainier

September 9 - 10, 2013

   An early 28th wedding anniversary, 5 waterfalls, one uninvited visitor and a magnificent mountain.

Getting There   

We're not even there yet, but were so impressed with the scenery and sheer cliff we stopped to take a closer look.
    This is the first photo I have taken in my Travel Adventures With Wil.

Silver Falls on the Ohanapacosh River

We had planned to start with a 3 mile hike to Silver Falls, then drive to a lunch spot, rest, and hike the 1 mile Grove of the Patriarchs loop.  We ended up feeling bold and adventurous and felt we would be superior outdoorsmen if we walked from Silver Falls to Grove, and back again.  We ended up walking a bit more than 5 miles on our first outing.  We did not feel any worse for the wear until that evening, when our legs were tired just climbing the stairs to our room.

    Wil was taking his first picture of the day and he stepped down off a rock onto another rock and slipped and nearly fell flat onto his back.  Luckily, he caught himself.  I told him I would not be able to piggy-back him out of there.

                                      

Bear Aware

This sign made me nervous, but Wil had his Leatherman strapped to his belt, so I was safe.

We kissed on every bridge.

Laughing Horse Falls

I'm easy to please - I thought this was Silver Falls and was quite delighted.  

  

Wil, takes direction well.  His pose isn't as dangerous 
                                                                  as it looks.

We continued on the trail and heard a roar of water.  We knew something big was ahead.

This is Silver Falls.  It stretched for about the length of a football field.  We only encountered one person on this hike and he took this picture.  Coincidentally, he will be visiting Pendleton High School next month because he is in the business of offering parenting classes to teen parents.  Wouldn't that be funny if he ended up at Nixyaawii, too?

This is on the home stretch.  Wil sees good pictures. 

Along this hike I heard what sounded like a 
growl, and a loud crash that sounded like a
large animal stepping through the brush. 
We did not hear any more sounds and 
nothing charged us so it was probably an echo and a branch falling.  The only creature we
saw was this little caterpillar on my back pack.




Grove of the Patriarchs

Just like Shrek and Donkey, we crossed a suspension bridge to look at some huge, old trees.  Since Wil is dressed in camo, it is hard to see him.

National Park Inn - An Uninvited visitor

Can you see it? We don't know if it was in the room in this picture or if it came in later.
  I was lying in bed, waking up about 5:20am and saw a shadow of a bird flying by.  I thought it was early and still quite dark for a bird to be flying about.  Then, something whizzed by my head.  I said to Wil, "something is flying around in our room."  I turned on the light and Wil peered around and said, "it's a bat."  It swooped about, coming closer and closer to us.  We would duck under the sheet and grin and wonder what to do.  When it landed on the curtain, I said, "I want to get out of the room."  So, we hustled out of bed, grabbed our bags and shower supplies and went to take a shower.  How awful it would have been to be bitten by a bat while sleeping on our anniversary trip.

  
Day Two
We experienced record breaking high temperatures and a crystal clear sky.  It was delightful.

This is Christine Falls.

 The view from the place we met an interesting man from Wisconsin who told us we must go on up to Paradise because it is lovely.

 Narada Falls.

   
It was a bit cold near the water, especially with the spray blowing on us.  We did walk down to the viewpoint shown at the bottom of this picture.  It was only .1 mile but very steep and our legs were extremely tired from the previous day's 5 mile hike.

Wil is always looking for a photo.

                                         Paradise was, indeed, lovely.

                                    

The 5th waterfall - Myrtle Falls at Paradise.  We walked just over 4 miles the second day, and did not do any of the hikes we had planned to do.  Our legs were just so tired. 

We had fun trying to take self-portraits.  A lady from Switzerland took this same photo for us, but I like this one better.

We also spoke to the famous Lou Whittaker near the bridge behind us. He has climbed Mt. Rainier 250 times. We did not know that when we were talking to him.  I was just asking him if he knew if Highway 410 was still closed because of a rock slide.

And, our friend from Wisconsin found us at Paradise and was so pleased we had decided to go see it.

Another nice couple took this photo for us.  Everyone was so friendly and pleasant.  Who wouldn't be in a good frame of mind if they were going to leisurely gaze at a mountain?  We met people from Las Vegas, Columbia (we didn't meet her but heard her talking to a guy who had been back country hiking for 3 days), Nigeria, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Switzerland, Texas, Illinois and Alabama.

                Is it any wonder I love him so?!  Are those Devil horns?


 Final Adventure: The Gondola to the top of Crystal Mountain

We rode a gondola for twelve minutes to an elevation of more than 6,000 feet to see....

...this!

There was a magnificent panoramic view showing Mt. Baker, Mt. Adams, Mt. St Helens, and of course, Mt. Rainier.


    I am lounging in a chair at the edge of the viewing
area.  I felt a bit tipsy up there.  It reminded me of the
tip of the mountain where the Grinch perched.

Still working on those self-portraits. Notice how we are now a bit groggy and disheveled from our expedition.

My attempt at being artsy at 6,000 feet.

  A beautiful mountain with equally beautiful surroundings.  This is one of my favorite of Wil's photos.  
  Today, the day I am finally posting this blog, is our 28th wedding anniversary.
                  I am looking forward to many more adventures.