A perfectly lovely excursion to Mount Rainier National Park
Today, the_monkey_king, ironymaiden, her C (who wore his Utilikilt, in which he looks quite smashing) and I ventured forth into the early Sunday overcast and drove south to spend the day hiking around Mount Rainier. We left at 7:00 AM, had to deal with almost no traffic, arrived to discover the parking lot at Paradise only half full and had the trails to ourselves most of the day. (Moral of the story: the best way to have a fine time on the mountain is to leave early). We stopped a couple of times along the way to take pictures of the beautiful vistas as well as at least one furry little fellow who looked part chipmunk, part squirrel but was 100% willing to have his portrait taken. By the time we arrived at Paradise, the clouds had burned off and the sky was an almost supernatural blue. The mountain was at its full glory, mantled in its perpetual glaciers and showing off its bones in the daylight.
I had done a bunch of pre-trip research about which trails are the easiest for those of us who are not hard-body hikers. My recommendations to our troop were the trail to Myrtle Falls and then the Nisqually Vista Loop Trail. Each featured an elevation gain of only 100-200 feet along paved trails that took between a half hour and 90 minutes to hike. The subalpine meadows appeared to be about half way through their blooming season, in some spots blanketed in purple-colored Cascade Asters, orangey-red Scarlet Paintbrush and, in some places, the elusive almost purple-blue Mountain Bog Gentian, which both ironymaiden and I saw, but the boys kept missing.
The Myrtle Falls trail was short, a nice introduction to the trail system at the mountain. We met a positive harbinger in a doe grazing placidly along the first creek we encountered. Her encounter with us featured what was probably her first and only encounter with the sound of ripping velcro as I retrieved my telephoto lens to get a decent shot of her. Her head and ears perked up at the sound . . . then she went back to munching at the brush. Reaching the falls was a more-than-perfect reward for the not-that-hard work of getting there. Most of the trail is pretty exposed and it was very sunny and hot; although we didn't gain much elevation, we felt as though we'd earned the treat of seeing the falls cascading down over the glacial rubble. After taking some pictures, we decided to take a loop back toward the Visitor's Center via the Waterfall Trail, passing through more meadows and seeing a couple of smaller falls, with the mountain constantly surveying our journey.
The Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor's Center at Mount Rainier is a large circular building. The main floor features a three-dimensional terrain map of the mountain and its environs, a book shop, an information desk, a gift shop and a cafeteria. The upper floor is an observation deck. I stopped at the information desk to stamp my National Parks Passport (ever the collector, me), and then we headed over to the cafeteria for lunch. The burgers were surprisingly good; C seemed pleased with the chicken strips.
Once we had fortified ourselves, we took the Nisqually Vista Loop Trail, which descends to three viewpoints overlooking the Nisqually Glacier and the run-off it releases, which becomes the Nisqually River. As we walked we saw what ironymaiden dubbed the cutest alpine bog ever, for its patches of grass and flowers, intersected with cold, clear rills. The closer we came to the viewpoints, the louder the sound of the running water became. When we finally arrived there, what we saw was the Nisqually Glacier covered in rubble with its run-off coming out from beneath it and snaking a roaring path through the morain valley. Also feeding the river is the Nisqually Falls, not as spectacular as other falls in the park, but notable nevertheless. The cold breeze off the glacier was delightful in the sunshine as we hiked past pine and fir trees, some tall and strong, some obviously lightening struck, some nothing more than naked, bony snags.
We concluded the day by hiking back to the Visitor's Center and up to the parking lot. We made one more stop as we exited the park, at Narada Falls, before heading back to Seattle. Narada Falls is beautiful, a 168-foot sectioned cascade, of which we only saw the top part from its side and from above, on the bridge which crosses it. We were all too worn to hike down to the viewpoint from which the entirety of the falls was visible, but what we saw was pretty spectacular (the pictures at the link above certainly do it justice). I want to go back specifically to get better views of this waterfall.
We then headed back to Seattle directly, each of us (with the exception of our stalwart driver, the_monkey_king, snoozing periodically. Really, it was a perfect, perfect day, and I'm just delighted we could do it.
Nifty related links I want to share, all of which were a great help in planning the trip:
Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest
Mount Rainier National Park
An introduction to the trails at Paradise on Mount Rainier
CoolTrails.com
I had done a bunch of pre-trip research about which trails are the easiest for those of us who are not hard-body hikers. My recommendations to our troop were the trail to Myrtle Falls and then the Nisqually Vista Loop Trail. Each featured an elevation gain of only 100-200 feet along paved trails that took between a half hour and 90 minutes to hike. The subalpine meadows appeared to be about half way through their blooming season, in some spots blanketed in purple-colored Cascade Asters, orangey-red Scarlet Paintbrush and, in some places, the elusive almost purple-blue Mountain Bog Gentian, which both ironymaiden and I saw, but the boys kept missing.
The Myrtle Falls trail was short, a nice introduction to the trail system at the mountain. We met a positive harbinger in a doe grazing placidly along the first creek we encountered. Her encounter with us featured what was probably her first and only encounter with the sound of ripping velcro as I retrieved my telephoto lens to get a decent shot of her. Her head and ears perked up at the sound . . . then she went back to munching at the brush. Reaching the falls was a more-than-perfect reward for the not-that-hard work of getting there. Most of the trail is pretty exposed and it was very sunny and hot; although we didn't gain much elevation, we felt as though we'd earned the treat of seeing the falls cascading down over the glacial rubble. After taking some pictures, we decided to take a loop back toward the Visitor's Center via the Waterfall Trail, passing through more meadows and seeing a couple of smaller falls, with the mountain constantly surveying our journey.
The Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor's Center at Mount Rainier is a large circular building. The main floor features a three-dimensional terrain map of the mountain and its environs, a book shop, an information desk, a gift shop and a cafeteria. The upper floor is an observation deck. I stopped at the information desk to stamp my National Parks Passport (ever the collector, me), and then we headed over to the cafeteria for lunch. The burgers were surprisingly good; C seemed pleased with the chicken strips.
Once we had fortified ourselves, we took the Nisqually Vista Loop Trail, which descends to three viewpoints overlooking the Nisqually Glacier and the run-off it releases, which becomes the Nisqually River. As we walked we saw what ironymaiden dubbed the cutest alpine bog ever, for its patches of grass and flowers, intersected with cold, clear rills. The closer we came to the viewpoints, the louder the sound of the running water became. When we finally arrived there, what we saw was the Nisqually Glacier covered in rubble with its run-off coming out from beneath it and snaking a roaring path through the morain valley. Also feeding the river is the Nisqually Falls, not as spectacular as other falls in the park, but notable nevertheless. The cold breeze off the glacier was delightful in the sunshine as we hiked past pine and fir trees, some tall and strong, some obviously lightening struck, some nothing more than naked, bony snags.
We concluded the day by hiking back to the Visitor's Center and up to the parking lot. We made one more stop as we exited the park, at Narada Falls, before heading back to Seattle. Narada Falls is beautiful, a 168-foot sectioned cascade, of which we only saw the top part from its side and from above, on the bridge which crosses it. We were all too worn to hike down to the viewpoint from which the entirety of the falls was visible, but what we saw was pretty spectacular (the pictures at the link above certainly do it justice). I want to go back specifically to get better views of this waterfall.
We then headed back to Seattle directly, each of us (with the exception of our stalwart driver, the_monkey_king, snoozing periodically. Really, it was a perfect, perfect day, and I'm just delighted we could do it.
Nifty related links I want to share, all of which were a great help in planning the trip:
Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest
Mount Rainier National Park
An introduction to the trails at Paradise on Mount Rainier
CoolTrails.com