Washington's Highest Mountain

Well, we finally drove to and hiked Mt. Rainier.

The one thing that's fascinating to me is that on a clear day one is able to see Mt. Rainier from anywhere in the Seattle area. Whenever I'm out and about running errands I can see it. It's such a cool sight. One never grows tired of looking at it.

We took the Puyallup/Graham/Eatonville way. We came to a fork in the road and came across Alder Lake. Water levels are low. I thought all the tree stumps showing was kinda cool to see.

This is what it looks like most of the way ... with some cabins here and there and a few restaurants along the way.

After a three hour drive we finally arrived.

We found a picnic area and had lunch. The day was mostly sunny with only a few clouds hovering. It was hot down where we live and we thought it was going to be cool up here but it wasn't that much cooler.

There are trails all along the way. We saw lots of people pulled over on the side of the road to get a view of lakes and meadows.
The place we stopped at is called Paradise. This is also the area where the visitor's center and the Paradise Inn is located.

As you can imagine this place was packed. Thankfully, we found parking near the Inn. There were many cars parked down the winding road. I cannot even imagine having to walk up that far and still have to hike. I wouldn't want to do that.

Proof that we were here. How exciting!

We hiked the Dead Horsecreek Trail which is 2.5 miles long. We've hiked longer trails but given that this trail is very steep from the beginning it sure made it very very challenging to hike it.

Every single person that began hiking along side of us stopped to rest at one point or another. There is just no way to hike it without resting on a very warm sunny day.

I admire Nathan's will to carry his baby brother up this steep trail. Poor Riley was tired. At least he got to rest his little legs for the five minutes that he was carried.

We saw a buck eating some berries. We also saw a marmot {they are one of the largest members of the squirrel family, also called groundhogs}. They are commonly spotted in the area we were in. I wasn't able to get a picture of it, didn't want to get too close to it.

We stopped here. One can view a glacier at the end of this trail. We opted not to finish the trail because Riley was tired and frankly so was I. We're able to choose to do this because we know we can come back whenever Mt. Rainier is open. We are hoping to come back when it's cloudy. For me, those are the ideal times to go on challenging hikes.

There was a waterfall. Jacob took video of it and shared it on facebook. I can't believe how much snow has melted off the mountain.


Looking back. The opposite view from Mt. Rainier.

Hiking down this steep trail was just as challenging. Your legs begin to ache because you have to walk it with caution.
Thankfully we made it down without incident. My feet were hot and my toes were achy. I'm glad I brought my berks to change into.

Although challenging, it was a nice hike and I feel blessed to have hiked Mt. Rainier!! Such a very cool thing to have done!!