10 July - Mount Rainier

10 July
This morning we cooked sweet potato pancakes and bacon outside and then worked on plans for the sites we want to see while we are in the Seattle area.  One of the sites on the list is the Future of Flight Boeing (Aircraft) Factory Tour, so we got online and ordered the tickets for that.  The first two time slots we chose were full, so glad we got that locked in for Thursday.  We researched quite a few other sites to include many lighthouses and Doreen coordinated with one of her relatives on meeting for lunch one day.

After lunch we packed Liberty up, fueled up the RAM and headed for Mount Rainier National Park, south of Tacoma.

The roadways lines with tall pine trees provides this unique picture!

It was about an hour drive to the Nisqually entrance and then to get to the primo sight for viewing the mountain, called the Paradise Park, was another 19 miles from there.  That 19 miles does not equate to 19 minutes as it is switchbacks, obviously very slow driving, and much to stop and see.

The top of Mount Rainier is at 14, 410 ft but we only got to about 5400 ft driving to Paradise before the road ended.  There were a multitude of trails that left Paradise and headed further up the mountain, but we did not climb any as we had our dog and they are not allowed.

Top of Mount Rainier is not visible here, but this is the point at which climbers head up the trails.

A beautiful quote on the steps describing Paradise, dated 1889.

Snow cover in July.  After we departed we read where dogs are not allowed on the snow cover.  Oops!

Great view from up here.

The Visitor Center at Paradise.

On the way down we stopped at Narada Falls.  It is about 188 ft high and 50 ft wide and has two drops that go under the road.  Crystal clear water but very cold as it comes right out of the snow melt.

Driving between these various sights are some great mountain views.

Next stop was Christine Falls. 69 ft high and 10 ft wide, and a bridge spans the lower drop.  We parked and walked down a short rock pathway to a viewing point.  It was a great sight from their.

Bridge visible above

The pool at the bottom

Then we went to Cougar Rock.  There is a campground nearby, but we stopped to check out the small creek which is surely a raging river during the snow melt.  There is a path from the parking area down to the rocks.

Looking upstream.  Just a very small stream now, but evidence of an angry river when the winter snow melts

The water was very murky here

looking downstream

It was from here I saw one of the neatest views of Mount Rainier.  Although obscured with clouds, still cool pictures:

These parks are filled with beautiful wild flowers of all sorts.  We found a really unique one today and maybe someone could help us identify it.  It looks kind of like a light bulb but may be what is called an "onion flower".:

Leaving the park we stopped at Elbe WA at the Mount Rainier Railroad and Logging Museum.  It was closed, but we looked around outside at several old trains.

A very old coal-fired, steam-powered engine static display

I could not find a date on this engine, but it is very, very old.

 Another steam train there was operational and you could ride it.

Built in 1929 by the American Locomotive Company

Also there were some old train cars convered to restaurants and several old cabooses that were rented out as hotel rooms!

There was a fruit stand across the street as well as a very unique food truck made out of an old ambulance!  We bought some strawberry Rainier cherries and some peaches and they are both delicious!.

The food truck

Cheap cherries!

All he fruit was delicious!  I really liked the Strawberry Rainier Cherries!  We brought some of them home!

The drive back to the campground was nice with great scenery.  Doreen snapped a few pictures out the window 

One of my favorites!

Tomorrow  have an appointment for a new front truck tire and a front end alignment, so Doreen is going to check on availability of boats, kayaks or canoes for the lake our campground is on.  The non-resident fishing license is a bit pricey so even though I would like to drop a line in the water here I might have to pass.