Mt Ranier National Park - August 29 - August 31, 2004

Sunrise Visitor's Center, Mount Ranier National Park

My visit to Mt Ranier National Park came towards the end of my trip, at the beginning of week 2. Some of the best weather on the trip was at Mt Ranier. I only stayed two nights, and spent the better part of two days there, and my visit to Mt Ranier was one of the highlights of my trip.

I had left Everitt, Washington, early on Sunday morning, August 29th, after mailing my mother a birthday card (Happy Birthday!). The drive from Everitt to Mt Ranier took about 2 hours or so; i skirted around Seattle to the east and then drove on highways next to tree farms. Lots of trees in Washington, and there are lots of signs at the farms to prove it. I like trees, but the amount of trees I saw on this day in particular just kind of overwhelmed me. "Trees" are probably one of the reason I just did not like Washington state as much as I could have.

You just can't miss Mt. Ranier. It is a stark, white mountain in a field of green - trees, grass, and other vegetation. The white is a glacier, that kind of ebbs and flows depending on the season. Being summer when I visited, it had retreated somewhat up the mountain. Winter will find it traveling back down the mountain again.

I spent a lot of time hiking around the sides of the mountain. I never got close to the glacier - people do, they get hiking permits and go up onto the glacier and actually camp up there. Not my goal - I admired it from afar. There are a couple of visitor's centers around Mt Ranier - I visited Sunrise (in the northeast) and Paradise (southwest). The mountain was not visibile from where my campsite was located, at Ohanopecosh campground.

Aside from the mountain, there are several other wonderful places to visit in the Park. On my first day, I visited Sunrise (as it was on the way to the campsite) and the Grove of the Patriarchs, an old growth forest.

Sunrise is, according the literature, the highest altitude reachable by car in the Park. It is only open June thru September. I remember driving a very winding road 1/2 hour and 1/2 hour back out, and a large parking area once I got to the end. I also remember some excellent views of the mountain. I did hike around Sunrise for a couple of hours and visited a pond called Shadow Lake. Trust me, it is a pond.

The Grove is on an island in the middle of the Ohanapecosh River, reachable by a very unsteady plank bridge. It is a beautiful and peaceful walk thru some very tall trees and very green saplings (I guess that is the word for them).

Paradise Visitor's Center, Mount Ranier National Park

On Day 2 of my stay (my only full day at the Park), I went West from my campsite at Ohanapecosh to Paradise. Supposedly, Paradise was the most beautiful part of the Park; I disagree. For some reason, I thought Sunrise was more scenic but that is my opinion. Again, I did some hiking over on the Paradise side of the mountain, then visited Narada Falls.

Narada Falls are further west than Paradise. The Paradise River is the body of water which falls over the Falls. Not much parking at the attraction itself but I don't remember there being too many people about. Of course, it was a Monday morning, kids in school, and it was still pretty early in the day when I was there. From the parking area, you walk down about 1/2 mile path to an area across from the base of the falls. And from which I took the picture over on the right.

Next was Reflection Lake and then the long hike of the day, out to Snow Lake. The trail out to the Lake had lots of "steps", meaning the path was graded to be more or less like stairs. I don't do steps well. The Lake was very pretty (no pictures) and I had lunch out there. I think the hike from start to finish was almost 4 miles. Also, you cannot see Mt. Ranier once you get into the trail to Snow Lake.

Finally, the Park also boasts what is called a "Box Canyon". And I guess it is. A very narrow and very deep canyon, with a river flowing thru it. I spent about 1/2 hour at the Canyon, took more pictures, and then called it a day. Had done pretty much all that I had planned or wanted by this point.