Summer at Mt. Rainier

We had a gorgeous day on Saturday and decided to spend it in the mountains. So, we went to Mount Rainier. And believe it or not, we didn't see a single cloud in the sky.



We started by driving in through Enumclaw and heading up towards Sunrise. We missed the opening of Sunrise by 3 days though - it doesn't open till July 1. Instead we veered off toward White River and hiked our cooler down to the river bank to have lunch. We crossed the bridge and even got our feet wet a bit to cool off.




We continued our journey by heading towards Paradise.




Along the way we saw several run-off waterfalls. With the long and crazy spring there is still A LOT of snow and it seemed that in many places the spring run-off was just getting underway now that the weather has warmed up a bit (it was 80-90 degrees on the mountain).

We saw one waterfall falling onto the road a bit, so Sierra and I got out to take a bit of a shower.



Reflection lake was still frozen over, so we got out and played in the snow for a little while. Sort of ironic how Sophie's first experience with snow is in June.




We continued to Paradise, where Sierra picked up and began working on her Junior Ranger booklet. With a view like this, can you even doubt why they call it Paradise?

After looking around the visitors center a bit and watching a video about the mountain, we took off to a campground to participate in a ranger activity to complete the junior ranger requirements. The ranger discussed the animals of Mt. Rainier and how they survive and then took the kids on a sort of scavenger hunt in a neighboring campsite. When they were done, Sierra had all of her activities completed and was sworn in as a junior ranger for Mt. Rainier.


We saw some wildlife through the day. We saw a couple of spruce grouse at Paradise. They are very similar to chicken, although as we were looking up exactly what kind of bird it was, the website did say that although it is a game bird that can be cooked like chicken, it doesn't taste like chicken. :) We also saw several deer. Sierra counted 6. The deer in this photo was next to the road eating and we had to slow down quickly as we came around the bend. It looked up as I snapped the picture and then turned and walked away.



It was a wonderful day. It is great to get to experience the wonderful scenery that Heavenly Father has given us and to be in nature. It really makes you feel close to Him. It was also a great time to build family memories. We all enjoyed it very much - even Sophie.