Day Twelve
Mount Rainier
After paying a brief visit to our westren office outside of Boise, we headed west across the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon and the Yakima Valley of Washington. The weather is absolutly perfect...temperatures are in the 70's, clear blue skies, and low humidity. These are ideal conditions, and we lucked out in that this weather stayed this way for our entire stay at Mount Rainier.
On this day, we arrive at Mount Rainier National Park about 14:00. Mount Rainier is a mountain wonderland of dense forests, dazzling wildflowers, tremendous snowfields, and rugged glaciers. This is our 5th visit to this park and it has never failed to amaze us. Our plan today is to hike up to Panarama Point, behind the Paradise Inn, the location of our lodgings for the night.
We could not have asked for better weather in an alpine environment. Perhaps it is too good!. We have to deal with a blinding sun on the snow fields, it is a relativly steep climb, and in direct sun without shade or little wind, it feels very warm. The views are spectacular as we hike up the 1,400'. The trail begins behind the Henry M Jackson Memorial Visitor Center where you can obtain information and a trail map of available routes. You'll need a map if you really want to do some exploring. Its not necessary, but there are many side trails off of the main trail, so the map helps you decide if its worth it or not.
After returning back to our room at Paradise Inn and having dinner at the lodge, we decided to go walking around outside and take advantage of the pristine conditions. Since the sky was perfectly clear and a 3/4 moon was rising to the south of the mountain, we were presented with a beatiful star field and a slightly illuminated Mount Rainier. We could not resist setting up our camera's and capturing this image. We wound up shooting three pictures with different explosures, and different lengths of star trails. The last photo (shown) was perhaps the best photo I have ever taken. The scanner did not do this photo justice. It really was a thing of beauty! What a way to end a perfect day!
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