Mount Rainier National Park - 2008 . . .
during our travels in the
Pacific Northwest
Updated: 11/30/08
We started seeing Mount Rainier in Seattle. During our drive to Mount Rainier National Park we had peaks of it along the way. We will post photographs of some of the views we had as we drove up the mountain. Mount Rainier is 14,411 feet at its crest. We entered the National Park at 2,023 feet of elevation. The visitors center on the south side of the mountain is at 5,400 feet.
We had not traveled too far on Route
12 when we started seeing
Mount Rainier. Then, we did not see it for quite a while.
One pull-off provided a beautiful view of
Riffe Lake.
More views . . .
It was a nice ride through a pine forest.
At one point they were trimming trees overhanging the road.
The entrance to Mount Rainier National Park was huge - maybe to
reflect the height of the mountain we were about to see.
The ride through the park was very pleasant. Some of the trees were very large and close to the road.
At
this view, we noticed the mineral stained rocks on this section of the river.
The park had many
of what are called 'braided' rivers. These are common to glacier mountains.
The views of the mountain became more frequent.
Pine trees all around . ..
Christine Falls . . .
Above the bridge . . . Below the bridge . . .
Fred turned the table on Mary Lou and made a photograph of her with her camera.
The highway bridge is barely visible in the large photograph.
Everybody was using a camera. 
The
clouds would separate to give us a look at some part of Mount Rainier.
A 1/10 of a mile walk
(down and back up) gave us a good view of Narada Falls.
Narada Falls
The pool at the top and the falls.
(Narada Falls is 168 feet tall.)
We could not decide which Narada Falls rainbow photograph to post. So, you get to see both photographs.
We hoped this bicyclist had a lot of gears on his bicycle to handle the mountain road.
Peaking out of the clouds . . .
The Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center is located at 5,400 feet.
We saw a rear door
near where we parked. Just inside the door was this
display of climbing tools.
This video was very interesting.
The light fixtures were decorated with snow shoes, skies and ski poles.
This lower observation area has space for a lot of people. Today it was vacant - except for us. There were four people in the uper observation area. The weather was too nice to use the indoor viewing locations.
Because of the cloud cover, we decided to have lunch and hoped the clouds
cleared. The clouds seemed to be coming from behind the mountain right at us.
The many glaciers of Mount Rainier . . .
Considering
the distance away this waterfall was, it had to be a large.
Tin pants . . .
The new visitor center is scheduled to open October 10, 2008
This
bird tried to get our attention.
This
gal pulled into the parking spot next to us, stood up through the sunroof of her
vehicle and a
started photographing almost before the fan blade on the engine stopped
turning.
The final photographs as the clouds cleared . . .
The peaks of Mount Rainier The view behind the camera
Mount Rainier
The ridges of the Tatoosh Range were beautiful too.
On the ride home . . .
This is the National Park Inn. It is open year-round.
This sign gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.
A hitchhiker?
The truck didn't move, so he tried the rock.
We made Mount Rainier a day trip from our campground in Chehalis. There are campgrounds closer but this one was central to our three destinations in the area. We enjoyed the mountain and the ride up but were glad we were not towing the HHII. Several days could be spent exploring the entire park.
A weekly pass costs $15. Discounts for special passes are available.
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