MOUNT RAINIER

7-3-2012

We woke up in the strange motel with the sound of rain. It probably could not get any worse. Dark, cloudy and raining pretty hard. Well, we only had hope that it will change with the time.
We drove around fifty minutes from Packwood do Ashford (another small town next to Mt. Rainier National park). It kept raining. Lonely Planet recommended breakfast place in Ashford. We drove thru small town and did not find it,  just to realize, we were supposed to head towards the park, where the restaurant was. Small nice place, heavy rain and few people in there. Below average breakfast - Washington state restaurant food sucks! (And is pretty pricy too.)

The park's gate was less then a minute from a restaurant. Still raining.

We figured that we will visit three main settlements in the park and maybe do few hikes (walks).
Longmire. Still raining. Houses. Bunch of cars. Visitor center (this one helpful). We got some maps and list of places to visit in one day. There was not much to see at Longmire, so we left pretty quickly.

http://www.nps.gov/mora/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier

Christine Falls
Narada Falls
The weather got a bit better. The scenery was really great. By Narada Falls we started seeing some snow and even part of the trail to waterfalls was covered with snow. Relatively cold. We were about two hours from Seattle, most of the country was tortured by heat and we were cold (with some snow around).

 At some point rain became hail. Just for a minute, but still ... it was hail. It was on the way to the Paradise. The biggest and most developed settlement in the park. Getting closer, it started to snow!!!!!! And there was much more snow. Some areas were still completely covered with snow. We parked and went thru the exhibition in visitor's center. Clearly, there was no chance we could do any hiking here.

Driving downhill. Really incredible views (even with the clouds and fog). Some rain, but not so bad.

Next to the Stevens Canyon Entrance, we walked the Grove of the Patriarch Trail. Next to the river, pretty much flat with some old trees. Really nice. Silver Falls. Just off the road (we almost missed it).

Driving to the Sunrise. Last settlement before heading home. 11 mile road ending at Sunrise. More awesome views (and snow) along the way. I did not appreciate steep valleys next to the road.
Sunrise.
Some buildings and huge piles of snow. Not too many cars (pretty much everything around was still covered with snow (except road and parking lot). We looked around in the visitor center and then talked for a while talked with two rangers. She was from Michigan. And again ... not a chance to hike around.

We were done earlier then we thought (no hiking at Sunrise). So we started heading home. Driving thru Enumclaw. It took us around two hours from Sunrise to home (not bad). Relatively nice drive. Strange feeling about the change - snow and cold and then normal weather of home.

I saw a bunny in visitors center. (behind the glass)