DAY THREE OF WASHINGTON STATE SIDE TRIP

Leaving Yakima WA in the morning of day three, we traveled west into the forest and mountains with a goal of touring MT RAINIER. Before arriving at Mt. Rainier National Park, we came to the Clear Creek Falls overlook and stopped for a break. There are several falls along this creek and they are all lovely, as well at the valley with the lake at the end of it. We stayed on the White Pass Scenic Byway following the river that wound it's way along between the great volcanic giants of Washington, Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. We know that the clouds might be rolling in before the day is over, so it is great to have these views with very little cloud cover. Such lovely views!! As we begin to wind around the mountains to go to Sunrise Ridge on the north east side of Mt. Rainier, we go though a tunnel. It is difficult to keep the different mountains straight in ones mind as the roads wind and the view angles change.

We wondered about the light green vertical stripes down the mountain. But after watching them for two days, we finally decided that it is newer growth. It makes for a lovely sight.

This lookout had great views and it was warm enough for our shorts even though we are at the elevations where snow is still very much in evidence.

We could see Mt. Rainier and noticed that clouds are becoming a denser cover!!

Finally arriving at Sunrise we checked out the gift shop and ate lunch first. On the way in for lunch we noticed them shoveling snow to uncover something. And they were quite comfortable in shirt sleeves.

Our hamburgs and fries were quite good and so was the view of the Lodge across the parking lot!!

Stepping outside we zoomed in on the mountain and were so glad that we were getting pictures before we lost sight of the mountain.

Mt. Rainier elevation is 14,410 ft, so we are probably at about 10 or 11k ft ourselves. This is the view behind the building we were in, and we could see people walking the trails up this mountain behind our building.

The wild flowers are abundant at this time of year in spite of the snow. As we left Sunrise Ridge we noticed the shale like surfaces on the sides of the mountains along the roads, interesting. We could see how it might be very easy to build walls with this.

When we arrived at Paradise Inn on the south side of Mt. Rainier,

we found the parking lot to be full and the road beyond the Inn as you head on down the other side of this mountain to be fully lined with cars. We forgot that it was Sunday and with good weather that it might be crowded with people. They sent us on down around a switch back road to their lower parking lot where we could take a shuttle back up to the Inn.

(notice the cars lined up along the hillside!) However, we found the views from the parking lot good for pictures also, so we did not bother going back on the shuttle. We really did not care to get trampled by people.

But the clouds are becoming darker and heavier. Notice the disturbance in the snow from the climbers and skiers. We also zoomed in on the glacier on this side of the mountain.

As we leave Mt. Rainier, we get away from the cloud cover and enjoy the very green forest and the many water fall and streams again.

We also found this gal stopped to enjoy the scenery from a lookout pull off.

This is the view that she is looking at:

And we go through another tunnel before coming into the valley and finding a motel for the night. It was a lot of driving so we were glad to call it a day. We will go on to Mt. St. Helens on our fourth day so check back in. I still have those pictures to re-size.