Day 4 - Mount Rainier

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Today was an interesting day. I was awake pretty early in the morning, and I prepared myself with a thermal jumper, assuming it would be cold up the mountain, as it wasn't that warm here in the city.

I made my way to the pickup point - which was the Sheraton Hotel. The tour bus was out the front. I hopped on bored and the day trip had begun.

I was introduced to a group of 22 other people. We set off and were given a brief overview of Seattle before getting onto the freeway and making our way towards Mount Rainier National Park.

The tour guide was very funny. An uplifting and happy person - he said he had been doing the job for 14 years. I think we all learnt a lot from him.

He took us to McDonald's first of all; he seemed to love it there. I grabbed a small burger and we soon headed off. He also took us to the Alder Lake, I think it was, where we stopped for a while.

It was soon afterwards that we reached the entrance of the National Park and had a look at a few of the waterfalls; Narada and Christine Falls. Both were pleasing to observe.

Unfortunately, the higher we got up, the weather became worse and it was extremely foggy at out final destination, although, the scenery along the way was nothing short of amazing. At the Paradise Lodge, you're supposed to see the mountain right in front of you - but there was nothing due to the fog. Oh well. Still, I had lunch at this lodge, which consisted of a salad with Alaskan salmon, then I decided to hike up the trail and see what I could see. I managed to spot a few sheets of ice part of a glacier, and decided to walk on them. At least I got to experience something completely unique to me. These sheets of ice looked fascinating. I would have explored further up, but I was running short on time.

So it was back to the bus, and a short sleep on the way down. We stopped at McDonald's again, before getting back into Seattle where we all parted ways. I was bummed out about the weather, but regardless, I had a great day.

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