Mount Rainier National Park

We said our goodbyes to Oregon and crossed the Bridge of the Gods on our way into Washington State. We made a 3ish hour drive, most of it through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and with no bars! We stopped for a moment to see Mount St. Helen (which I did not know was an active volcano, that last erupted in 1980) before heading to Mount Rainier.

 

At Mount Rainier National Park there are a multitude of hikes to choose from.. we started with the kid friendly Grove of the Patriarchs. It is approxamately a 1 mile loop where you walk along the Ohanapecosh River to an island of ancient Western red-cedar, Douglas-fir, and Western hemlock.

We crossed a small suspension to get to the island.

Some of the trees here were over 1000 years old and as wide as 50ft in circumference.

 

We ended up spending far more time at the Grove running circles around the trees.. Initially after this particular hike we had planned on hiking the Paradise trail but instead decided to do Sunrise instead.. Sunrise is the park highest visitor center at an elevation of 6400 feet. It was stunning.. the drive up was a bit scary.. mainly because since I wan't doing the driving I had the opportunity to look down and see just how far down the drop was.. Mount Hood was a nothing compared to the glory of Mount Rainier.. 

Magnificent!

Afterwards we headed to Seattle

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