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Published: October 16th 2006
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Last night while we were driving into Olympia, Washington at twilight we looked up to see a ghostly image - Mount Rainier… Later, Carl read in the National Geographic Guide to National Parks “Because Mount Rainier creates it’s own clouds and can hide for days or weeks at a time, come prepared to focus on delights close at hand: waterfalls, woods and wildflowers.” So when we woke up and looked outside to find another clear day we were feeling lucky that our string of good weather would allow us such good views of the mountain!
Statistics
Starting Destination: Yelm, Washington
Ending Destination: Morton, Washington
Ending Destination GPS: N: 46° 33.071’ W: 122° 16.630’ Elev: 358’
Miles Driven: 142.8
Distance Walked: 2.5 miles (4 km)
Meeting the Mountain
We headed out of town, retracing our steps of last night at least once and sometimes more than that while we were driving around in the dark trying to find a motel… We finally got on the correct road and headed towards our destination for the day - Mount Rainier National Park… We were acting like we almost couldn’t believe our good fortune that we would be able to see the whole mountain - we stopped several times for photos and on one memorable occasion back-tracked up this hill twice trying to find the best picture location!! As you can imagine, without any other mountains around it, Mount Rainier does seem to dominate the skyline and we kept getting closer and closer… Along the way we also stopped for a glimpse of Alder Dam - we had seen it and several other dams on the map, but couldn’t really see them through all the trees. What we could see was that Alder Lake was very low—plenty of mud flats and dead trees with only a trickle of water running in some places…
Our second stop to meet the mountain was at the Rainier Base Camp; here we got a flavor for what is required to actually climb the mountain all the way to the top—all the expensive and exotic climbing gear, the training required and the fact that each year more people die trying to climb Rainier than Everest! Both Carl and Maria decided that, while they enjoy hiking - they would leave the climbing (especially the technical climbing) to others who are possibly younger and perhaps less sane! Our third stop to meet the mountain was at the Longmire Museum; unfortunately the visitors’ center was closed so we wandered around the Museum collecting interesting facts. Carl liked the fact that - the first woman to climb the mountain did so in a long skirt and pantaloons, attire that was considered scandalous; and Maria that - women were not allowed to drive in the park until 1919. There was also a cross section of a Douglas Fir Tree that was 770 years old when it was cut down in 1963 - someone obviously spent way too much time and counted the rings, identifying those which corresponded to certain historical events…
Our forth stop was at Paradise, 5400 feet up the side of the mountain and as high as you can drive on the south side of the mountain. From the parking lot at the visitors’ center we hiked out to several viewing stations for the Nisqually Glacier and a closer view of the mountain. Again we were amazed by the power of glaciers to totally reshape their environments! We also got a birds-eye view of the mountain creating a cloud - thankfully it was only a small one. Our fifth stop was at Reflection Lakes, where on a still day you can see the mountain perfectly reflected in the lake - when we stopped it was a little windy so the mountain looks like it has the shakes. However, we were interested to find out that until 1973 the lakes had been stocked with non-native fish and you could boat, swim and fish in the lakes. Today, all over the park are signs (in as many as 10 languages) asking you to keep to the trails so as to preserve the “natural” environment, oh what a change 33 years and millions of park visitors can make!
Delights Close at Hand
While we were busily photographing the mountain from as many angles as possible, we took the guide books advice and looked for those things close at hand… The hotel on the way to the park that had a “train theme,” all the rooms, restaurant and lobby were train cars. The house, painted a delicate shade of blue with pink-and-white trim, with a working waterwheel in the front yard. The yard artist, with massive iron sculptures in his/her studio (aka the front yard).
The waterfalls - Christine and Nerada; there was a short walk to view the Christine falls (left), which were spectacular, but difficult to photograph due to the lighting. At the Nerada Falls we could “hike” down over 100 steps to get a view of the whole falls, hopefully the photograph (far left) does it justice. During this hike we “walked through time,” the falls are created at the boundary layer of the initial sedimentary rock and the volcanic rock from eruptions of Mount Rainier - the boundary was actually signposted, but it was rather difficult to see! The woods - we stopped both at the Twin Firs, where we looked but couldn’t find the twins, and the grove of the patriarchs. Both Maria and Carl decided that they were kind of “Big Tree’d” out, and that they had to save something for the even bigger ones in California! The rivers - most of them have a milky color due to the glacier ‘flour;’ we didn’t realize that there was so much until we read (in Olympic Park) that climbers should take their water from the smaller streams as water from the rivers has so much flour that it will soon clog the filter in your water purifier.
The wildflowers - well we really didn’t see very many wildflowers, however, we did see the fall colors… In certain light it seemed that all the plants were “on fire,” with brilliant reds, oranges, yellow’s and every imaginable color in between; with just enough green to make the whole picture seem real. Carl commented that most of the parks will not seem the same if we return in the summer and there is no color. The wildlife - we really didn’t see much wildlife as we didn’t really venture off the beaten path (oops… paved path, due to the number of visitors). But Carl did spot a tiny white blob, that morphed into two tiny white blobs - again we were unprepared and Carl had to wait ’till we got back to the parking lot (and the binoculars) before he could confirm that they were mountain goats… Male or female we don’t know, just definitely mountain goats!
Finishing the Day…
To take in all we described above, we had to drive along the southern most edge of the park. By the time we were done it was nearly 5pm and we didn’t have time for our next destination - Mount St. Helens… So we looked for a motel along the way - unfortunately, we passed up a few too many so we had to pass the turn-off… Backtracking will be something that we have to look forward too tomorrow!!
Carl’s Travel Trivia
Yesterday’s Answer: California
Today’s Question: What percentage of the climbers make it to the summit of Rainier?
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Bonnie
non-member comment
Can tell you the % but here's the number for last year
2005 - Had 8,972 climbers and only 4,604 were successful. I was amazed at the information provided to people that wanted to climb this mountain. It sounds very dangerous and too many rules for me. Seems odd you would need a permit to hike??? I was thinking you will probably be in the market for a new truck when your trip is over!