Memorial Day and Mt Rainier
Well it finally stopped raining long enough for us to go hiking on Memorial Day at Mt Rainier National Park. We left later in the day and it took a couple of hours to get there, so we didn’t arrive at the park until about 4:30 or so. But, since it doesn’t get dark here until 9 or 9:30 right now…we were O.K. Even though the rain had stopped, it was still overcast and cloudy all the way to the park. Once there, we stopped at a trailhead parking lot, loaded up, and took off. We had intended on doing some easier hikes, since my buddy Pat and his wife and four kids were with us, but we ended up venturing up a 2 mile moderate hike up to Rampart Ridge Trail, which would give us some views of the surrounding mountains and the valley where a rushing glacial creek flowed. As we began to climb through some intensly thick forest, the sun began to break and beams shot through the various openings in the forest roof. As we got to the top of our climb, there was a lookout area that looked down into the valley where we started our hike from. Up to this point, we had not even caught a glimpse of the massive peak that towers another 7000 feet above all the surrounding mountains. We moved up the train and before us, through the tops of trees we caught a glimpse of the majestic snowy beast! We could only see portions of it because the trees are so thick, so we ventured back up the trail and further forward, hoping to come across an opening to gaze at the magnificent summit. We got our wish as the trail came to its high point and ended into a small path through some trees out onto a rocky terrace that gave way to the most breathtaking sight. There she was in all her glory! We gazed in awe at God’s awesome creation…14,400+ feet of white beauty. We stared up from our mere 4300 feet at her; so close, you could almost reach out and grab her; but so massive and unattainable, that it didn’t seem real. It was amazing and totally worth every panting step up our climb. I can’t wait to actually climb to the summit, which I will venture to do some day in the near future. But for now, I am fully content with the beauty I withheld on this day.
We hung out a bit 3 wild birds came around and would actually land on our hands and each trail mix from our palms. It was great! I had never had a bird land on my hand before, so that was a cool experience. It was getting late and we needed to get back down to the parking area so we could make some dinner and head back on our 2+ hour trip home. Some cool stuff. Being in the great outdoors…there is nothing like it! rock on!
