Camping, Part 2

Sorry part 2 is trailing so far behind part 1.  That's because my personal photographer and photo editor was exceedingly busy with a 3 week summer intensive ballet program and only recently got the photos finished.  She takes amazing pictures and edits really well, and yet I was still a bit disappointed when I saw them.  

I think it's because although the beauty of the things we saw is evident, you cannot experience the scope of it all in the photos.  You cannot feel the soft, cooling breeze and the spray of the waterfalls.  You cannot hear thunder of glacial water rushing over the boulders.  You cannot know what it feels like to stand somewhere so majestic and so grand that in comparison you feel your life and your problems and your worries are so insignificant.  Hopefully you have been somewhere like this at least once.  If you have, maybe you can feel these pictures.

HIKE #1

For our first hike we went up to Sunrise.  The elevation there is about 6700 ft. It's the highest spot you can drive to in Mt. Rainier National Park.  We went on an easy hike, nearly all level, and had the view of the summit almost the entire time.  We were also there for the only couple of hours all day that the summit was not obscured by clouds!

Thank goodness for big brothers when your little feet tire out.

The meadows were bursting with wildflowers.  It was so beautiful I told my kids I wanted to build a house, right there on the top of that little ridge because I was going to live there forever!  I get a little carried away when I'm in such places.

I'm seriously agonizing over which of these photographs to enlarge and hang in my house.  

Do you see that green speck at the bottom of the valley?  It's this amazing lake we saw from the trail at Sunrise, not far from the White River.  And we kept wondering where on earth that was and if there was anyway to get hike to it.  But we couldn't find anything about it. 


HIKE #2

The trail head for our next hike was just a few spaces away from our own campsite.  We were headed up to an overlook to see the snout of the Emmons glacier, and the beginning of the White River which flows from it.  This was billed as an easy hike.  Perhaps this was optimistically labeled easy by some professional mountaineer.  While it was "easy" to walk, no climbing gear and roped needed, it was 1.5 miles of straight uphill. When a walking trail needs switchbacks...  easy if you're not old and out of shape.  But SO worth the effort!

The information about the trail neglected to mention the MANY waterfalls right along the path.  At least 6 or 7 that I remember.  And each one got bigger than the last.  

This one went up much higher than we could photograph...without falling off the trail where it continued

under our path, crashing to the valley below.  Awesomeness.  

Zach just had to try going across this.  Which he did successfully.  But Alyssa almost cried before he was done because she was sure he was going to fall to his death.  

After crossing over the White River in a lovely spot, the trail continued.

Or what's left of the trail.  There was a warning that the train was eroding and to be careful.  The "trail" was about an 18" width of soft dirt with a drop off on the left.  It was worse coming down.  So glad we continued because at one point, Zach strayed just off the trail and called for us to come look.  

It was the lake!  The same one we had seen from Sunrise!  We couldn't find any safe path down to it, but WOW!  What a wonderful surprise to discover. No amount of editing does justice to the brilliant blue-green color of the water. They could have left me there and I would have died happy.  

We went a little farther and could see the valley below, the evidence of the 2006 flood, the White River, and to the far left of the photo...the "snow field" you see is really the end of the Emmons Glacier.  

We all had pictures taken here.  The scenery was so stunning, and the scope so huge, that I felt like we were posing in front of some fake backdrop. It was almost surreal.  And, again with this hike, the two hours we were exploring was just about the only time all day that the sun was out and the mountain not totally hidden behind clouds.  The poor people headed up while we were headed down missed this.  How blessed were we?  

So where to next year?  Back to Mt. Rainier and trails we haven't taken yet? Olympic National Park looks amazing as well, and we've never been there.  So much beauty, so little time to see it all!

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. 

Home Schoolers Hiking Flat Top

We're really blessed to be involved with a great home school group!  Yesterday, Natalie joined some other 8-10 year olds to make walking sticks, use their sketch books, and go hiking at Flat Top Park.  Natalie's in pink, by the way.

Chloe came along too.  But she decided to play on the playground instead of hike.  She really wanted her own hiking stick though!  

I know it's too far away to see, because I have a old, not so great camera.  And because that old, not so great camera doesn't zoom so good. And because I'm not that great of a photographer (but I'm working on it!).  But, the kiddos were having a great time hiking.  Natalie said they could see all three rivers from up there....   Yakima, Columbia, and Snake.  Awesome!  She can't wait for next Friday.