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.