A walk around Rainier
Jerry and I just returned from our hike around Mount Rainier. It was too glorious for words. Somehow, though, I'm going to have to come up with words, because I'm writing a story about it for the paper. In the meantime, do you want to see photos? I sure enjoyed taking them, I hope you enjoying looking at them.
Early on our second day. I love all the craggy rocks around Rainier.
From Indian Henry's.
The oldest patrol cabin in the park. I believe it was built in 1915.
The mountain looks so strange to us from this angle. We never see it from this side and it looks so bare.
I hike with Bigfoot.
Suspension bridges are a nice mixture of fun and terrifying.
This sign is for people like Jerry who would probably think it was fun to bounce the bridge.
The view down from the bridge. Look at that chocolate milk water.
On the Wonderland Trail, we cross many rivers but every single time I'm amazed. See how deep that bed is? Can't you just imagine the power of the water rushing down it during the winter storms and spring melt?
Glaciers fascinate me.
The view from Emerald Ridge.
I love these subalpine areas. The plants are so fascinating and the views are always great because everything is so open.
The Emerald Ridge view was really impressive. We had a great time sitting up here and eating a snack. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.
More hiking on Emerald Ridge. I have a lot of photos of Jerry's back.
I don't know what these things are so I just call them Dr. Seuss plants.
See why I like these rocky, crazy plants?
More of the glaciers. It's impressive to stare at them. And you can't see it in this photo, but there are many waterfalls in there.
Required self portrait in front of mountain.
These crazy cliffs hung over one of the campsites. We didn't stay here, but I would have liked to. We had to settle for lunch and staring at these wacky rocks.
More wacky rocks. Jerry thinks they look like bundles of spaghettie.
I'm sure if I remembered my science classes better, I could totally explain why these rocks split in a hexagonal shape.
I love this photo. Our shadows on the silt-laden river show up so well. I believe this was the South Puyallup. Or maybe the North.
Jerry and I have this thing about taking photos of where our feet have carried us. We were getting silly here by putting them up on the bridge.
Huckleberries. YUM!
Jerry eating huckleberries.
The flowers were growing everywhere. They are called mountain bog gentian and are the last thing to bloom on the mountain, according to the guide book.
Many, many pica were hiding in the rock pile. We only saw a few, but heard lots of their little calls.
This chipmunk was clearly getting ready for the winter. Look at how full those cheek pouches are!
Let's take a closer look at those cheeks
And here is the little bugger at the buffet.
This was toward the end of a really, really long day. But I couldn't avoid taking a lot of photos of the evening light. Being on the mountain really makes me wish I was a better photographer.
I think this photo may be bound for a frame on my wall.
I love looking out over all the ridges. This was just before our second night of camping.
A tiny little patch of light hits the cliffs, while Mount Rainier hides in the background.
I can't get enough of the evening light. So warm.
The little lake by this camp was nearly dried out, but it still was a nice view in front of the mountain.
It was a little wet this morning. We hiked for a long time in a light drizzle. You can see our boots are a bit wet.
This was just before we climbed, climbed, climbed out of the valley.
Clearly, this site gets a lot of bear traffic. There were two reports of recent bear sighting, and a bunch of torn out pages in the front, where I assume rangers had collected the earlier reports.
This little snake was sunning himself. He held nicely still for some photos.
I'm smiling here because I'm really happy the sun finally came out. It was a drizzly day up until this point.
This area was burnt in a fire more than 80 years ago, and it still hasn't grown back up. Alpine areas recover slowly.
We had a lot of fun watching the mist blow through the valley. The second ridge in the photo is where we came from earlier in the day. Lots of up and down this day.
Gee, I wonder what the bears like to eat?
More photos of the burnt area. Very pretty.
I'm trying to figure out what the hawk flying over us was. I'm still not sure.
This is the cabin at Golden Lakes. It's a really lovely little spot. Sadly, though, the campsites are jammed really close together, and the spot was really full the day we were there. Not really the solitude we were looking for. We still loved it, though.
I love the way these leaves hold rain drops like tiny jewels.
Writing in my trail journal by the lake.
The lake.
This is on the hike out of Golden Lakes. This was one of the nicest sections of trail of the whole trip. It was smooth, slightly downhill, beautiful and full of huckleberries.
Along the same stretch of trail.
Crossing the river at the bottom of the descent.
This was another big, wide river channel. A nice lady hiking with her mother took this photo.
These bridge are all over, and they're really handy. The trail crews must go to a lot of work with them, because they get washed away nearly every year.
Jerry heads over the check out the rock cairns.
These shelters would be fun to stay in. It's be great not to set up a tent. Also, later this night we were woken up by lots of rain and lightning. It would've been nice to have somewhere dry to huddle.
Cool bug. OK, Mom, wanna ID it?
A peek-a-boo view of the mountain. This was one of the few views from this day of hiking. It made for a bit of a slog to always be only able to see trees.
A very nice waterfall just before out camp for the night.
I love the moss covering these rocks. The trickle of water between them was magical.
Mowich Lake. This was day four, and we were dearly in need of a little dip.
Don't you want to visit this lake? Lovely, isn't it. This was taken near where the food caches are stored, which made us love the place even more. We were able to pick up more food and clean socks we had stored for ourselves.
I braved the cold water and went for a swim. You can see by my flapping arms that it is COLD.
Next morning. Clearly not so nice as the day before. We had a spotty night of sleep because of all the thunder and lightning.
Isn't it neat how different the lake looks just 12 hours later?
It was a wet day. We changed our hiking plans for this day and took the easier route. I was worried about our planned route being to scary in the slick rain.
I think I look like some sort of monster here.
More lake. Lots of clouds.
I may have taken about a dozen photos of the mist. None did them justice, but this came the closest.
I'm not sure what I'm doing in this photo. Maybe a sun dance? Maybe looking for berries?
I remembered this waterfall from last year. I was just as entranced then.
Some day I'll get to see this spot in the sun.
This day was a short one (after we changed our plans to avoid the high ridge) so we had plenty of time for goofing around.
See?
I like this photo.
This is the view up from that bridge we were laying on.
Not a bad spot for a break.
I think a hobbit may have lived in this tree at one point.
I tried and tried and tried, but could never get a good photo of how neon these mushrooms are. I believe the are chicken of the woods, which are supposed to be edible with a consistency like chicken.
We loved all the mushrooms on this trip. This one was just laying in the middle of the trail.
Another attempt to photograph the neon orange mushrooms.
Yet more crazy fungi.
One of many, many, many river crossings.
"Honey! Honey! Look! A bear!"
Can you see him?
What about now?
In case you were wondering, this is how a bear crosses a river. We had to use this same bridge later, so we gave him some time to clear off before we went over.
The bear bridge.
Standing on this bridge was crazy. You could hear and feel the rumble of huge rocks crashing downstream under the water. That tiny channel was deep, swift and impressive.
If you look closely, you can just see the glacier that feeds this river. It's a strange one, very dark because it's covered with a layer of dirt.
One of the very few obstacles on the trail. The trail crews around the Wonderland work HARD.
This is the Carbon River, and that is, logically, the Carbon River Glacier that it's flowing from. This is, I believe, the lowest glacier terminus in the lower 48. The theory is that that dirt "cap" on the glacier help keep it cold.
This was our water source for the night. A lot prettier than a tap, ain't it?
Self portrait in front of waterfall. I would have loved to have someone take a photo of us here so you could see the waterfall in the background. Sadly, we would have had to find a photo taker willing to stand in the stream, because we are on a bridge here.
Trying to get clothes to dry out. It was a mostly futile effort.
The Carbon River Glacier, this time in the morning with the sun shining on the ice.
You find the craziest plants on these hikes.
This was a hard, hard day. The trail was incredibly steep. Happily, we had met a ranger before this hike, and he told us that it was 40 switchbacks to the top. Jerry here is indicating we are on No. 10. It was very motivating to count off the switchbacks.
The view from our hard day. Not too bad. There is a hike that goes along the ridge across from us, and sometimes we will be able to do it.
More of those awesome flowers.
Again, I want a wide angle lense. This is Yellowstone Cliffs, one of the most stunning places on the trail.
Indian paintbrush. Purdy.
This is a lovely little subalpine area, not too far above Yellowstone Cliffs.
Jerry takes a break to look at the lake and tie his shoe. And to show off the excellent humpback look thanks to his poncho.
Look! It's Mount Baker! It was so exciting to see the mountain we see all the time from our home. Of course, from here it's a lot farther away.
Can you see the natural bridge? It's hard to get a good photo because of the angle. That lake you see down below is just over a small ridge from the lake where we spent the night.
Hardy little huckleberry bush. With one tiny huckleberry.
A nice view of the trail down below.
Can you see the trail splitting through the meadow? I like to be able to see where I am heading.
The trail that I showed from above. This was one of my favorite sections of trail.
See how amazing this trail is? It must have taken a lot of work to get this so perfect.
Nice day. If you're a duck. Or a slug.
The nice ranger Darren took this photo. As you can see, it was a bit wet.
The hikers' version of a skull and cross bones. (Camera lense was a little foggy.)
Prettiest stream I've ever seen.
Pretty. See? I really, really wish I had not cut off the edge of the stream on the right.
Baby marmots.
Can I take one home?
Foggy and pretty. Getting close to the end of the trail.
One final foot shot.
Early on our second day. I love all the craggy rocks around Rainier.
From Indian Henry's.
The oldest patrol cabin in the park. I believe it was built in 1915.
The mountain looks so strange to us from this angle. We never see it from this side and it looks so bare.
I hike with Bigfoot.
Suspension bridges are a nice mixture of fun and terrifying.
This sign is for people like Jerry who would probably think it was fun to bounce the bridge.
The view down from the bridge. Look at that chocolate milk water.
On the Wonderland Trail, we cross many rivers but every single time I'm amazed. See how deep that bed is? Can't you just imagine the power of the water rushing down it during the winter storms and spring melt?
Glaciers fascinate me.
The view from Emerald Ridge.
I love these subalpine areas. The plants are so fascinating and the views are always great because everything is so open.
The Emerald Ridge view was really impressive. We had a great time sitting up here and eating a snack. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.
More hiking on Emerald Ridge. I have a lot of photos of Jerry's back.
I don't know what these things are so I just call them Dr. Seuss plants.
See why I like these rocky, crazy plants?
More of the glaciers. It's impressive to stare at them. And you can't see it in this photo, but there are many waterfalls in there.
Required self portrait in front of mountain.
These crazy cliffs hung over one of the campsites. We didn't stay here, but I would have liked to. We had to settle for lunch and staring at these wacky rocks.
More wacky rocks. Jerry thinks they look like bundles of spaghettie.
I'm sure if I remembered my science classes better, I could totally explain why these rocks split in a hexagonal shape.
I love this photo. Our shadows on the silt-laden river show up so well. I believe this was the South Puyallup. Or maybe the North.
Jerry and I have this thing about taking photos of where our feet have carried us. We were getting silly here by putting them up on the bridge.
Huckleberries. YUM!
Jerry eating huckleberries.
The flowers were growing everywhere. They are called mountain bog gentian and are the last thing to bloom on the mountain, according to the guide book.
Many, many pica were hiding in the rock pile. We only saw a few, but heard lots of their little calls.
This chipmunk was clearly getting ready for the winter. Look at how full those cheek pouches are!
Let's take a closer look at those cheeks
And here is the little bugger at the buffet.
This was toward the end of a really, really long day. But I couldn't avoid taking a lot of photos of the evening light. Being on the mountain really makes me wish I was a better photographer.
I think this photo may be bound for a frame on my wall.
I love looking out over all the ridges. This was just before our second night of camping.
A tiny little patch of light hits the cliffs, while Mount Rainier hides in the background.
I can't get enough of the evening light. So warm.
The little lake by this camp was nearly dried out, but it still was a nice view in front of the mountain.
It was a little wet this morning. We hiked for a long time in a light drizzle. You can see our boots are a bit wet.
This was just before we climbed, climbed, climbed out of the valley.
Clearly, this site gets a lot of bear traffic. There were two reports of recent bear sighting, and a bunch of torn out pages in the front, where I assume rangers had collected the earlier reports.
This little snake was sunning himself. He held nicely still for some photos.
I'm smiling here because I'm really happy the sun finally came out. It was a drizzly day up until this point.
This area was burnt in a fire more than 80 years ago, and it still hasn't grown back up. Alpine areas recover slowly.
We had a lot of fun watching the mist blow through the valley. The second ridge in the photo is where we came from earlier in the day. Lots of up and down this day.
Gee, I wonder what the bears like to eat?
More photos of the burnt area. Very pretty.
I'm trying to figure out what the hawk flying over us was. I'm still not sure.
This is the cabin at Golden Lakes. It's a really lovely little spot. Sadly, though, the campsites are jammed really close together, and the spot was really full the day we were there. Not really the solitude we were looking for. We still loved it, though.
I love the way these leaves hold rain drops like tiny jewels.
Writing in my trail journal by the lake.
The lake.
This is on the hike out of Golden Lakes. This was one of the nicest sections of trail of the whole trip. It was smooth, slightly downhill, beautiful and full of huckleberries.
Along the same stretch of trail.
Crossing the river at the bottom of the descent.
This was another big, wide river channel. A nice lady hiking with her mother took this photo.
These bridge are all over, and they're really handy. The trail crews must go to a lot of work with them, because they get washed away nearly every year.
Jerry heads over the check out the rock cairns.
These shelters would be fun to stay in. It's be great not to set up a tent. Also, later this night we were woken up by lots of rain and lightning. It would've been nice to have somewhere dry to huddle.
Cool bug. OK, Mom, wanna ID it?
A peek-a-boo view of the mountain. This was one of the few views from this day of hiking. It made for a bit of a slog to always be only able to see trees.
A very nice waterfall just before out camp for the night.
I love the moss covering these rocks. The trickle of water between them was magical.
Mowich Lake. This was day four, and we were dearly in need of a little dip.
Don't you want to visit this lake? Lovely, isn't it. This was taken near where the food caches are stored, which made us love the place even more. We were able to pick up more food and clean socks we had stored for ourselves.
I braved the cold water and went for a swim. You can see by my flapping arms that it is COLD.
Next morning. Clearly not so nice as the day before. We had a spotty night of sleep because of all the thunder and lightning.
Isn't it neat how different the lake looks just 12 hours later?
It was a wet day. We changed our hiking plans for this day and took the easier route. I was worried about our planned route being to scary in the slick rain.
I think I look like some sort of monster here.
More lake. Lots of clouds.
I may have taken about a dozen photos of the mist. None did them justice, but this came the closest.
I'm not sure what I'm doing in this photo. Maybe a sun dance? Maybe looking for berries?
I remembered this waterfall from last year. I was just as entranced then.
Some day I'll get to see this spot in the sun.
This day was a short one (after we changed our plans to avoid the high ridge) so we had plenty of time for goofing around.
See?
I like this photo.
This is the view up from that bridge we were laying on.
Not a bad spot for a break.
I think a hobbit may have lived in this tree at one point.
I tried and tried and tried, but could never get a good photo of how neon these mushrooms are. I believe the are chicken of the woods, which are supposed to be edible with a consistency like chicken.
We loved all the mushrooms on this trip. This one was just laying in the middle of the trail.
Another attempt to photograph the neon orange mushrooms.
Yet more crazy fungi.
One of many, many, many river crossings.
"Honey! Honey! Look! A bear!"
Can you see him?
What about now?
In case you were wondering, this is how a bear crosses a river. We had to use this same bridge later, so we gave him some time to clear off before we went over.
The bear bridge.
Standing on this bridge was crazy. You could hear and feel the rumble of huge rocks crashing downstream under the water. That tiny channel was deep, swift and impressive.
If you look closely, you can just see the glacier that feeds this river. It's a strange one, very dark because it's covered with a layer of dirt.
One of the very few obstacles on the trail. The trail crews around the Wonderland work HARD.
This is the Carbon River, and that is, logically, the Carbon River Glacier that it's flowing from. This is, I believe, the lowest glacier terminus in the lower 48. The theory is that that dirt "cap" on the glacier help keep it cold.
This was our water source for the night. A lot prettier than a tap, ain't it?
Self portrait in front of waterfall. I would have loved to have someone take a photo of us here so you could see the waterfall in the background. Sadly, we would have had to find a photo taker willing to stand in the stream, because we are on a bridge here.
Trying to get clothes to dry out. It was a mostly futile effort.
The Carbon River Glacier, this time in the morning with the sun shining on the ice.
You find the craziest plants on these hikes.
This was a hard, hard day. The trail was incredibly steep. Happily, we had met a ranger before this hike, and he told us that it was 40 switchbacks to the top. Jerry here is indicating we are on No. 10. It was very motivating to count off the switchbacks.
The view from our hard day. Not too bad. There is a hike that goes along the ridge across from us, and sometimes we will be able to do it.
More of those awesome flowers.
Again, I want a wide angle lense. This is Yellowstone Cliffs, one of the most stunning places on the trail.
Indian paintbrush. Purdy.
This is a lovely little subalpine area, not too far above Yellowstone Cliffs.
Jerry takes a break to look at the lake and tie his shoe. And to show off the excellent humpback look thanks to his poncho.
Look! It's Mount Baker! It was so exciting to see the mountain we see all the time from our home. Of course, from here it's a lot farther away.
Can you see the natural bridge? It's hard to get a good photo because of the angle. That lake you see down below is just over a small ridge from the lake where we spent the night.
Hardy little huckleberry bush. With one tiny huckleberry.
A nice view of the trail down below.
Can you see the trail splitting through the meadow? I like to be able to see where I am heading.
The trail that I showed from above. This was one of my favorite sections of trail.
See how amazing this trail is? It must have taken a lot of work to get this so perfect.
Nice day. If you're a duck. Or a slug.
The nice ranger Darren took this photo. As you can see, it was a bit wet.
The hikers' version of a skull and cross bones. (Camera lense was a little foggy.)
Prettiest stream I've ever seen.
Pretty. See? I really, really wish I had not cut off the edge of the stream on the right.
Baby marmots.
Can I take one home?
Foggy and pretty. Getting close to the end of the trail.
One final foot shot.