Category: Mt. Rainier

After visiting Paradise Park on Mount Rainier in 1888 John Muir wrote, “Gardens of Eden filled knee-deep with fresh, lovely flowers of every hue, the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings.”

Those of us lucky enough to live in Washington State long ago learned to time an annual visit to the mountain when the wildflowers are most apt to be in bloom for there is, indeed, something magical in the juxtaposition of snow fields and fields of brilliant wildflowers,

and my favorite flower happens to be Indian Paintbrush, a flower I’ve only seen growing in the Cascades.

Personally, I’ve always identified Rainier’s wildflowers with the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon because of the way they cling to the rock cliffs like this patch of Lupine,

these Phlox and Gentians,

or this Heather that seems to be holding back this rock slide.

Rainier is beautiful any time of year, but it is hard to imagine a more beautiful place when the wildflowers are in full bloom. No wonder nearly 2 million people a year visit Mt. Rainier National Park.

Leslie and I spent much of last week up on Mount Rainier. On Saturday we took Ted and Leslie’s friend Hao

who’s visiting from Shanghai to Sunrise because it’s undoubtably the most spectacular spot in Western Washington.

We were rewarded with a bright, sunny, surprisingly hot, day on the mountain.

The Indian Paintbrush,

Phlox,

along with many other flowers covered the meadows, even outnumbering the visitors.

Apparently in Hao’s honor we were greeted by local residents, like this Hoary Marmot.

We ended up making the full loop around the mountain, even managing a stop at one of Leslie’s favorite viewpoints, Box Canyon,

before ending our day at the Wild Berry Restaurant in Ashford.

Beautiful weather, stunning views, strenuous exercise, great food, and good company. Days don’t get any better than this.

I don’t know anyone who lives in Western Washington who doesn’t love the sight of Mt. Rainier. You always enjoy seeing the mountain, even in your car. You get out of your car to experience the subtle beauty of wildflowers that carpet the mountainside as you climb up beyond the visitor’s center.

On the way down you stroll through fields of purple asters (though the climb UP is anything but a stroll 🙂

You walk wayside trails to fully experience waterfalls crossed unnoticed on the highway.

You hike mile-long trails to discover creeks plunging down the mountainside, waterfalls hidden by old-growth forests.

If you ask someone if he knows how far the falls is, you may even meet a Belgium-born nuclear scientist with a GPS that can tell you it’s precisely 70 meters ahead.

If you hike very long, you’re also sure to meet curious local residents,

that will land if you hold out your hand to them,

even without food to offer.

I climb the mountain to find my own little piece of heaven here on earth.

Leslie had a day off in the middle of last week and the sun was shining, so we decided to drive to Mount Rainier for the day. Looking back at some of the shots I was amazed at how different Mount Rainier looks from different angles, even when they are all taken from the southern side of the mountain.

For instance, here’s a shot from the Nisqually River, showing how wide the river sometimes gets during Spring flooding.

There are many pull-outs on the way to Paradise where you can get long shots of the mountain.

This shot from Alta Vista above the visitor’s center shows the mountain rising above us,

but when we climbed to Panorama Point, 6800 feet, the mountain didn’t seem quite as high, though my huffing and puffing indicated otherwise.

The Nisqually Glacier trailing to the south somehow made the mountain seem less high than it really was.

All you need to do to re-establish how high you really are is to turn around, look to the south

and realize that even at this height you’re higher than almost all the mountains in the Cascades

Coming off the mountain, looking down at the Nisqually River where you began your climb brings the day full circle.