Longmire-Mt. Rainier National Park

Although my parents and I spent the night at the historic lodge, Paradise Inn, we all woke up very early.  Like 4:45 am early.  The birds in the eves were making a lot of noise.  The rooms at the inn, were small, but comfortable.  We all got up.  

 The plan was to eat a large breakfast, but the dining room did not open until 7:00 am.

We packed up our things and sat down in the main area.  It is a grand room flanked by two massive, stone fireplaces.  

 Fortunately, there was coffee by 5:30 am!  For my parents.  After breakfast,  we stopped by Narada Falls on our way down to Longmire.

 It was really cold!  The viewpoint was in the shade. mixed with the mist of the falls!

 Mt. Rainier Park has a second historical Inn at the base of the mountain called Longmire.  From Longmire, it is easy to get onto the Wonderland Trail.  We decided to take park of a hike through old growth forests up to a view point.

 The trail started through a wet land.  It was magical.

This trail was not paved.  The forest was Douglas Fir, Spruce and another...

The trees at the base of our walk were hundreds of feet tall.

As we walked higher, my parents and I noticed that the trees were growing out of the rocks.  It took us an hour and 45 minutes to get to the top to the view point.

We looked down at Longmire!   

I was happy to make it.

The walk back down was faster, but my legs were definitely hurting.  The great thing about this trail was that it was much less busy than the trails up at Paradise.

After this hike, we drove home.  It was nice to have experienced Mt. Rainier National Park in the morning. 

A Visit to Paradise

 On July 11th, my parents and I drove out to Mt. Rainier National Park.  The Park is only 2 hrs from our home.  We have visited this park several times over my life, but this is the first time that we have spent the night!

We drove up to Paradise on the south side of the mountain.  We had a quick lunch and then walked the paved trails up the mountain.

There was a lot of snow on the trails.  All of our shoes got really wet.

My parents and I passed a lot of mountain climbers coming down from summiting the top.  The air was thin, but it was the perfect day.

We saw alpine chipmunks and two marmots!  Not to mention, Mt. St. Helen's and Mt. Adams.

It was definitely easier coming down to the visitor center.  After our hike, we checked into the the Historic Paradise Inn.  We had dinner in the dining room and enjoyed the quietness that the evening brought, since most of the day hikers had left.

Mt. Rainier-Paradise

My cousins from Chicago came for a visit.  Their first day, we took them the Mt. Rainier.

 Uncle Colin took lots of pictures of us with his big camera.

 The alpine flowers were blooming.

 At the visitor center we found a cool model of Mt. Rainier.

 We did climb up behind the visitor center for awhile.  I needed lots of breaks .

 When we finally decided to stop going up.  Jack and I took a picture with Tha tha. (Gavin did not make it up as far.)

 I was happy to walk back down.  We went and got a cool drink.

 Mom wanted us to see the historic Paradise Lodge next door.

This was the most impressive smile that I could muster.  I was really tired.  We had a two hour drive home.