Mt. Rainier from Paradise © 2010 Bo Mackison
We were lucky. “The mountain is out,” they kept telling us as we were getting ready to drive to Mt. Rainier National Park from Seattle. And so yes, we drove to Mt. Rainier National Park and the skies were clear and all the mountains were snowy and shining in their glory. It was the first day of good snow melt, and the waterfalls and rivers were all rushing and gushing!
We entered the Nisqually Entrance, arriving about 9 am, then drove up towards Paradise. We stopped way too many times to count for photographs, also for a stroll through the lobby at the historic National Park Inn, a hike to Christine Falls, then lunch at the lovely Paradise Inn.
After checking out the Paradise Visitor Center (very modern, very cool — as in temperature!) where I photographed the above shot of Mt. Rainier, we hiked the Box Canyon trail, took another several hundred photos — the mountain was OUT! — and then gawked and gawked as we walked the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail (giant trees, boardwalk, icy rushing river from snow melt!)
We finally exited the park on the Mather Memorial Parkway in the northeast corner of the park about 9 pm and headed back to Seattle — exhausted but happy! Good thing we were exploring in mid-June and taking advantage of some of the longest days of the year.
Paradise is the name of an area of Mt. Rainier NP which is approximately at 5,400 feet on the 14,000+ south slope of Mount Rainier. Evidently Paradise is the most popular destination for visitors to Mount Rainier National Park, it was jammed with people, but we didn’t stop there long.
There was too much to see elsewhere. There were plenty of people playing in the snow at Paradise though, as seen in the photograph.
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I’m glad you got to see the mountain on a clear day!
Pretty remarkable — those snow covered mountains. Very grateful the clouds cooperated and didn;t hide the beauty!
Sounds like a fabulous trip. BTW where does the mountain go when it’s not out?
The mountains go IN — and hide under big clouds! LOL!
Beautiful image but I’m not sure I like seeing snow in June. lol!
Sounds like you’re having a wonderful adventure.
Snow is fine in June, but only as long as you can drive from 5400 feet to ground level and find summer’s grasses and wildflowers again!
An absolutely stunning and majestic landscape. Beautiful image!!!
Rainier is quite the mountain. I can just imagine how many people visit the park, known for its cloud cover, and never see the great mountain!
Breathtaking, simply breathtaking.
Wow!!!!!!!!!!! “The mountain was OUT!” Another great line today! Something us Southerners don’t hear or even ponder about…mountains being “out” and all. This is great stuff. Oh, and the photo is jaw-droppingly amazing! (I made up that word, “jaw-droppingly.”) (Feel free to use it) (LoL!)
We midwesterners don’t much think about mountains being OUT either. But then, we don;t think much about mountains at all! It was jaw-droppingly (thank you for the word) beautiful!