Diary/Photo Journal
Week of July 27, 2003
Since we had only the day to split between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier, we hurried up to the southern part of Mt Rainier. We figured that if we really enjoyed the area, we would just return after our visit with friends in Shelton, Washington.
Mt. Rainier's profile dominates Western Washington's skyline and is visible from just about every hill. We could not resist a few pictures. On our way to Paradise (where the information center is located), we stumbled across the most beautiful, magnificent, breathtaking, remarkable, awesome lake we had ever seen. Check out the pictures and see what you think.
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Mt. Rainier at every turn |
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Nice Lake! |
Because of our time constraint, we were limited to one hike. We chose the trail to Myrtle Falls, a short and relatively easy walk that takes you through mountain meadows like something out of fairy tales. Myrtle Falls was quite beautiful but even its beauty was eclipsed by the blankets of purple, red, yellow and white flowers within the vivid green grasses.
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The mountain meadow in its glory |
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Myrtle Falls with Mt. Rainier in the background |
Even though we had limited time in this part of the Mt. Rainier National Park, we were able to see quite a bit of the landscape and took in many different scenic overlooks on our leaving the area.
That night, we were happy to find a campsite close to Vancouver (to install those elusive windows) and one with hot showers.
The windows were installed by Peninsula Glass and even though there was a glitch in the process, they made good and the windows are ideal. Hopefully, we have removed the chance for a window leak when we hit the torrential rains of South America.
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George and Joe installing the new windows. Jeff set the deal up |
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Cindy's new look |