Camping Part I

After two years of not camping, I was so ready to go! 

This wasn't even all our gear.  I think the neighbors thought we were moving.

I can't explain it exactly, but something in me NEEDS to be in the mountains, surrounded by beauty, at least once a year.  This was only our second camping trip in about 5 years.  It was a little disappointing that we couldn't all go since two of the boys needed to be home for jobs etc, but we went anyways.  Since we haven't been to Mt. Rainier since before Chloe was born, that's where we needed to go.  I ♥ Mt. Rainier. 

The day before we were leaving, Ken found out that he lost his job. As of immediately.  Well, pretty much every employee of that company in the state of WA was "eliminated".  Wow. Hey good news, that vacation time is approved!  Thank goodness we were able to get away and commune with nature a bit and put things into a better perspective, and most of the time simply not think about it at all.  

We had a few other minor things like injuries, our car battery dying the night before we were heading home, and one ridiculously cold day 

(high of 58 and steeped in fog) but...  we survived.  Sort of.  We sat around in our jeans and sweatshirts desperately trying to stay warm while most of the other campers walked around in their mountaineer leggings, wool socks, hats, and extreme weather vests as if it were as comfortable out as a June afternoon.  Overall the good parts outweighed the bad (except for that stupid job thing).  

We stayed at the White River campground for the first time (because we were too late to make reservations elsewhere).  In the past we've stayed at Ohanapecosh (LOVE) and Cougar Rock (meh). We ended up loving White River and the Sunrise area.  SO AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL.  Ohanapecosh gives you hikes with forests and waterfalls.  Paradise gives you mountain views.  White River gives you both.  

One thing we love about Mt. Rainier in general is the Campfire programs held nightly Th-Su where the rangers speak about different topics related to Mt. Rainier.  Family friendly, educational, and fun.  We learned some fascinating things about Black bears for sure!  They have a Junior Ranger program where kids of all ages can earn patches, badges, and a lot of great wilderness information.  They meet for an hour most mornings and Natalie and Chloe LOVED it as my other kids did when they were younger. (Hmmm...maybe I need to imitate this for homeschool).

We also visited the Sunrise area, about 10 miles past and 2000 ft higher than our campground.  Stunning, and not so crowded as Paradise.  We went on two hikes during our trip. Words cannot describe what our eyes saw, so Part Two will have a few words, and lots of photos.