DFT - Mt. Rainier

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Such a sad experience at Mt. Rainier....I so desperately wanted it to be one of my favorite parks, but the weather did not cooperate while we were there.  When we first arrived on Monday it was 44 degrees and by the time we made it up to Paradise, which is the best part of the park and has the best view of the Mountain, it was so foggy we couldn't even see our hand in front of our face.  I had been going non stop for 20 plus days at this point and I was ready for a nap.  So I kindly asked Daniel after we set up camp if I could take a nap for a while.  He was nice enough to find a hike to do while I took a nap.  Monday night we had dinner at The National Park Inn.  It was probably one of the best, if not best meals we have had on our trip! I had buttermilk fried chicken and the beef barley soup was sooo good!  While we were waiting for dinner the Mountain did start to peek out from behind the clouds so we got to see it for a brief moment.  After dinner we did a short hike to Carter Falls and we finally got to go to a Ranger Program in our campground...Daniel has been trying to go to one this whole trip and we always miss it some how.  And since it was the Fourth we built a fire and roasted marshmallows.




Tuesday we slept in some since the weather we still looking foggy.  For a while we drove around and stopped at some of the waterfalls that were right off the road.  We did one hike that was real short and known for its views, but it was so foggy we couldn't see anything.  We wanted to hike the Skyline Trail, but it was pointless since you couldn't see the Mountain.  We did drive over and hike around Bench and Snow lakes, since it was lower in elevation the fog wasn't bad and we could actually see them.  We had finished our hikes by 4pm and went to Paradise Inn to sit in the lodge. We sat and read until the dining room opened at 5:30 and had dinner in the lodge dining room.  It was a huge disappointment compared to our dinner the night before.  I wish we had just gone back to National Park Inn.  After dinner we stayed around for the Ranger program that was held in the lodge lobby that evening.  If the fog hadn't been ridiculous they were going to have a star gazing program at 9:45...but it apparently they haven't been able to have it all yet this season.




On Wednesday morning when we woke up, we could actually see blue skies.  We really needed to hit the road because we had a ten hour drive head of us, but we really wanted to see Rainier, so we started the drive back up to Paradise.  On the way up we got caught in traffic and had a great view of it...I got out of the car and took ONE good picture with the camera.  By the time we made it to Paradise, a cloud was in front of it again and you couldn't see anything.  It was so sad :( Actually Mt. Rainier tweeted later that day that the Mountain was playing peek a boo. We took a wrong turn leaving the park and def. added at least 2 hours to our drive that we were already getting a late start on.  Not to mention we lost an hour on the way to Montana.  It was finally 10:30ish by the time we made it to our Lodge.  Yes I get to stay in a Lodge! No more tent for the rest of the trip! And the first thing I did was take a shower...since I hadn't had one since Monday morning.  I don't know how hikers and other outdoorsy people go more than 2 days without a shower.  Its gross!

Look Close I promise its under there somewhere!

















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