Pacific Northwest 2021: Mount Rainier National Park

 From the airport, we drove down to the Mount Rainier area. It was very beautiful with lots of green trees and flowers. The kids enjoying exploring around the hotel. We even spied some deer the following morning which was cool.

Megan with some flowers she collected and then made into a ring.

Clouds/fog in the direction of Mount Rainier.

We ate yummy blackberry pie with dinner.

We headed into Mount Rainier National Park after breakfast the next morning. It was a cool, overcast day.

The area around Longmire is wooded. The Nisqually River is flowing very quickly in the background. All the rivers were flowing at high levels due to a higher than normal snowpack and a recent heat wave. (Longmire had been 105 and even Paradise was 90!)

U and Megan with the top of Christine Falls.

Sarah, Megan and Me with Christine Falls behind us.

Christine Falls

Narada Falls

Megan, U, Matthew and Sarah with Narada Falls. There was quite the mist around Narada Falls and we all got quite wet.

Hiking back up to the car from Narada Falls. The trail was quite slick. Me actually fell on the way down even though her shoes generally have really good traction.

Pretty flower we spied.

Part of Narada Falls from above. The part seen in the above pictures is actually to the right of this photo.

Megan and Matthew receiving their Junior Ranger badges at the Paradise area of the park. We had planned on doing some hiking in this area but the trails were still covered in snow and hiking was not recommended due to the rapid snow melt. We knew that heading up there but had hoped to enjoy the views. However, it was also foggy so we were not able to see the top of Mt Rainier. It just means we will need to go back another time.

We drove down Paradise Valley Road which was lovely.

We stopped at Reflection Lake. Even though we could not see Mount Rainier reflected in it, we did have a nice reflection of trees.

U and Megan with a nice waterfall.

We stopped at Box Canyon which ended up being one of our favorite areas. Sarah says she is going to build a cottage and live there.

Glacier carved rocks covered with moss and lichen.

We saw a few deer.

There were a lot of pretty flowers.

The canyon is so narrow and deep. It's 180 feet down at this point.

Megan, Me, Matthew and Sarah

Cool tunnel carved through the rock by Box Canyon.

Our next stop was the Ohanapecosh area where we went on a couple of hikes.

Megan wanted a picture with the sign to send to her 4th grade teacher since she called her class "her Ohana."

There was a lot of moss hanging from trees on our hike down to Silver Falls. And this area is not even a rainforest. So different from our dry desert!

Silver Falls

Sarah with Silver Falls

Matthew and Silver Falls

Glacial runoff water looks green. And cold.

Silver Falls from the side.

So much green and growth.

Me, Matthew, Sarah and Megan on the hike.

We then went on the Grove of Patriarchs hike. We didn't end up doing the entire hike due to a looooong wait to cross the suspension bridge but we still saw lots of big, old trees.

Sarah on the tree slide the kids found.

Matthew sliding down the slide.

Megan on the slide.

Do you see Mathew? He looks so tiny on the ginormous tree.

Matthew climbing up the tree.

Looking at some big trees.

A peek up the tree.

Matthew and U crossing the river.

Matthew got to the other side.

Driving up to Chinook Pass, we drove through some fog tunnels where the road was clear but there was fog rushing overhead. It was still cloudy at Chinook Pass although we spied a patch of blue sky to the north.

Mount Rainier Park sign near Chinook Pass.

On the other side of the pass, the sun came out and we could finally see the mountain!!! It was so exciting.

The Sunrise section of the park was still closed but we drove to the White Campground where we had excellent views of Mount Rainier.

Sarah, Matthew and Megan in the car as we left the park to drive to the Kramps.