Hiking Mt. Rainier

Mt. Adams
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Getting up early (7am on your holiday is still early) to go to Mount Rainier on the first sunny day, woohoo! I said it's probably not completely clear today yet, so maybe it would be a better idea to go to the rainforest first, but the plans were already made. No worries, let's go!

We picked up Aaron, Patti's nephew, in Rainier on the way up to the mountain to go along with us. On the way getting there I caught up with my dad in the back, while Patti chatted to Aaron and drove us there. Took a few pictures of Mt. Adams as it rose between the other mountains. We passed Mt. St. Helens too, but couldn't just see it, no sweat.

Beautiful flowers growing everywhere in the brightest colours, lovely creeks along the paths, with nice clear water flowing over the stones.

Alta Vista Top
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Driving up Mt. Rainier there are quite a few nice views. It's a shame that it wasn't fully clear, or we would've been able to see it in Reflection Lake as well. But we were able to see a nice little creek from Box Canyon. As we drove further up the mountain we got closer to the clouds, and yes there was... SNOW!

Getting to "Paradise", we had a sandwich first before we started hiking. Had a look in Jackson Visitor Center, and a pee before we go. Took us a couple of minutes to decide which route to go for. First we wanted to go for one of the shortest and easiest, a 45min roundtrip called the "Nisqually Vista Trail". Eventually we settled for the "Alta Vista" one, a little bit harder, but also a little higher, hoping we would get above the clouds a bit so we could see something.

Beautiful flowers everywhere
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We were storming up the mountain, my dad and I. Good thing we were outside and hiking now: it was impossible to keep the gas in. Thank god there wasn't anyone behind us or they'd probably faint right away haha! I blame yesterday's chili, it was really good so I ate a lot! After 30-40 minutes we reached the highest point of the "Alta Vista" trail. Couldn't see a thing but fog, but it was so nice and quiet up there, and not cold at all. Beautiful flowers growing everywhere in the brightest colours, lovely creeks along the paths, with nice clear water flowing over the stones. At one point the path was still covered with snow, but it was still possible to walk around it. Always nice to see the white white snow! Didn't stay long at the snow though, didn't want it to get brown.

Foggy forest with nice flowers
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Of course we didn't go the same way back, and decided to take an alternative route than planned. We walked back along the "Deadhorse Creek Trail", but I told my dad that the other trail had more dead things in it than this one!

We even "bumped" into a deer on this trail! And a little further up another one. Apparently they didn't seem to be bothered by us at all, not even by my gasses (was embarrassing at some point I tell ya!), and would let us come as close as 15ft (about 5m)! They'd probably be used to the amount of tourists coming through, but it's still nice to see these animals in the wild from so close.

Deer
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A couple of mountain climbers came back from climbing just then and we had a little chat as we watched the deer. Pretty nice people around here I'd say!

Arriving at the Visitor Center, Aaron and Patti were waiting for us inside. I stormed into the toilet and got back out relieved and all. Bought a few nice postcards and relaxed at the chairs for a minute before we left.

After we got down the mountain we were finally able to see Mt. Rainier! It was clearing up a little bit, and apparently it had been quite a nice day everywhere else. No worries, we had a very nice day anyways! Dropped off Aaron, and picked up Patti's parents to celebrate dad and Patti's 3rd anniversary. We had dinner in Yelm, where they live, at Mr. Dougs. Nice food there, not a really fancy place, but still nice. The waitress seemed to be racing from one side of the restaurant to the other. Amazing how hard she worked!

Nice flowers
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Anyways, had a nice meal, was nice to meet the parents. Nice folks and all!

Dropped them off at their place again after dinner and drove home. We were still able to see Mt. Rainier, what a shame we weren't able to see anything of it while we were up there. Oh well ;)