Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington

July 12, 2023

We had good weather on our travel day, but the roads were a bit congested, as we were relatively close to the Seattle metro area. This, and the fact that the last 20 miles or so of road were weirdly bumpy/wavy, meant a tiring day for the driver (Rick). 

It was a pretty hazy day, but you can see a faint shadow of Mt. Rainier in the background

Finally got rid of the traffic, but this road was quite wavy and made the trailer bounce around

It didn't help that our campsite was fairly challenging to back into due to the narrow camp road and large trees that needed to be avoided. But, Rick has gotten to be quite the pro at maneuvering our beast of a trailer, and we got backed-in and parked on only the third try or so. Rick wasn't too sure we'd ever get out, but Julie is always of the opinion that if you can get in, you can get back out again 😉.

A beautiful campsite, but kind of challenging to back into

We were very solar-challenged here, so Rick washed the solar panels to give them the best shot

There was a pleasant spring-fed creek behind our site

A little beyond the creek was the White River

Gorgeous forest setting here!

There was a lovely spring that erupted from the ground just across the road from our campsite. We were surrounded by the sounds of water 😊

The next day we headed to the Sunrise district of Mt. Rainier National Park. It was a gorgeous day to hike the Mt. Fremont Lookout Tower trail (7 miles in total).

There she is--Mt. Rainier!

Sunrise Lodge (not sure it was ever a real lodge, but it is called a "day lodge" nowadays)

We saw quite a few marmots along the trail

Views from the tower

We had brought our mini folding chairs, so we sat for a while at the top and enjoyed the view

There was still a bit of leftover snow up here

Julie would like to point out that there were also younger people using hiking poles on the snow. Rick is still too cool to use poles. 😉

Shadow Lake

Looks like we were a little too early for the wildflowers that probably fill this meadow later on

We did manage to see a few flowers here and there

After the hike, we had a picnic lunch near the visitor center and then walked a short trail to a scenic viewpoint of Mt. Rainier (because we hadn't seen enough of it yet 😉).

Heading back down the mountain

This post has too many photospheres in it to work so you need to continue on to part two by clicking here:

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