Tacoma to Rainier National Park

So if you golf then you know that we are here during the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.
It begins Thursday but our hotel is full of Brits, Aussies and Scots that are here to be a part of
or to participate in the Golf Tournament. We were at breakfast with amazingly nice staff and these
bananas. Kind of funny-if any of those people were famous golfers it was lost on us. It was a fun
experience though.

First falls of this park and first hike. This is the innocent looking creek that flows under
this side of the bridge.

This is the same innocent creek that thunders over the rocks on the other side of
the bridge! You can see the bridge at the very top. Many people are here taking in the
breathtaking site. We wonder what innate thing in us draws us to water...

Paradise Lodge is a great base for the start of many hikes. In the parking lot we see various people putting their packs together for overnight excursions. Wildflowers are abundant everywhere. The colors of flowes, the green trees and the white glacial Mt. Rainier is a site that took our breath away. We just sat and stared. This mountain is over 14,000'. This place is often covered by clouds so again it is an outstanding day to visit. Temps are varying from high 60's to low 70's. About 25 glaciers on this mountain. In this picture we are at 5400'. This is considered to be the snowiest place on earth. 1971/72 snow fall of 1,122" was recorded. Paradise also has the record for the most snow on the ground (in comparison to the whole Cascade Mtn Range) it was 367" on March 10, 1956.  Climate here is considered to be subartic. Today it is ideal.

We pulled off for roadside picnic..behind us was a creek, just up the hill was a waterfall. Lunch was an oddity of things picked up from the Paradise Lodge.

Sherry's lunch was a classic ham sandwich while mine was a mix of weird protein bars. Selections were limited at the Lodge and I wasn't up for a chili dog or another ham sandwich so....I am just going to say it...this thing looked like a terd.

When you are hungry...it was a peanut butter, chocolate protein plop. I imagined it was cardboard with a schmeer of pb and chocolate...it was actually okay... I have eaten worse...such as the bar I ate right before it.

Trying to stay hydrated means lots of stops at Comfort Stations. Hehe...that is kind of funny. This one happened to be closed so then we had to stop at outhouses called Honey Buckets. Also kind of funny...Sherry came back with the report that the Honey Bucket was nearly overflowing...all stops required a holding of your breath and a very fast visit.

A roadside falls. Had to stop. We are from desert so every water fall was a must stop moment.

Grove of the Patriarchs has trees that are well over 200 feet tall and bigger around than anything I had ever seen!

One suspension bridge made this hike even more fun. I believe it said one person at a time but it was not a surprise that Sherry stepped onto the bridge when I was halfway out so that she get it bucking up and down...paybacks...

This is one of the smaller root systems of an old tree we saw. Many of the dead trees had new trees growing out of them. How cool that something that seems useless because it no longer stands is actually providing a foundation for life of new plants and trees.

This tree was so big I could only take a panorama of half of it!

Paybacks...look who is on the bridge now!

Silver Falls and final hike. So pretty. Every falls is different and we just don't get tired of seeing them.

Wild berries are growing everywhere...wild raspberries? Found them in yellow, dark purple and deep red and they were so good...it just so happens that the one I gave Sherry wasn't quite ripe...hehe.

Final view of majestic mountains as we leave.

Long days in the parks have been fun and now seem funnier as we tiredly head for our hotel..2 hours away in rush hour traffic. This song played and we laughed.

GPS directions told us our hotel was here...Boeing airstrip and no hotel. Turns out it is on the other side but seems that driving across the airstrip will get us more attention than we want right now.

ahhh...martini time.

Final thoughts on this day: We are tired at the end of this day but we are feeling happy not because of the martini but because we have seen incredible sites. We have put our hands on trees 1,000 years old and wondered what history they knew and what forces they had survived in this place that was so beautiful and peaceful in this moment. We wondered at the beauty of fallen trees that provided so much life to a continuing regeneration of forests. We stood on ground that had been ravaged by volcanos erupting, blinding snow storms, gale force winds and torrential downpours that caused floods of humongous porportions but in this moment this ground is covered by gentle, living things and the sunlight is casting its soft rays gently down through the majestic heighths of the forest canopy and air is warm and sweet with the subtle fragrance of green things around us. So much wonder and so much peace exists in this place...may we never forget this feeling and these moments when we go back to our fast paced lives.