Mount Rainier is truly embedded in western Washington Culture (maybe in Washington culture in general, but I have not ventured to the east). It is on the license plates, on signs on the military base, and on a clear day, you can see it every time you turn around. In fact, I am looking at it right now out my living room window. The difference between Mount Rainier and most other mountains I have seen around the world, is that Rainier sticks out so far above anything else. Even huge mountains seem shorter when so closely surrounded by other mountains, but Rainier's loneliness in the skyline makes for true majesty. In August, I took two trips to Rainer National Park. Both were to the Sunrise Camp, and both were very different trips in terms of the mountain I saw (or didn't see being the more accurate way to put it).
Trip One: Our first stop was Federation Forest State Park to hike to the Hobbit House. Judging by the amount of spider web I ate, this was not a terribly popular trail. It was dense old wood and quite lovely. We walked for some time along a river and saw many old growth trees. The most interesting part of this forest were the giant stumps of fallen over trees that had sprouted new trees out of the roots. It was as if a once earthbound piece of root felt the first ray of the sun's warmth and immediately perked up and said, "My turn!" After about a mile, we reached the hobbit house, a cute little circle of tree stumps where people had set up the households of various gnomes and other small plastic creatures. Cute, but hardly what I imagined from the description of a "residence worthy of Bilbo Baggins" as the Lonely Planet Pacific Northwest Trips guide billed it. Maybe to truly get the spectacularity of the place, you have to be less than four feet tall.
On to Sunrise! Despite the fact that the mountain was not out (see top picture), the place was phenomenal. Sunrise is the highest point in the park one can drive to - 6,400 feet. By the time we got to the parking lot, we were well above the tree line. What is left are alpine meadows full of purple and red flowers - lupine (although not as tall as the lupine in Maine), mountain heather, and paintbrush. We hiked along the ridge to Frozen Lake, one of many alpine lakes. We even had to walk across some snow. We didn't see any mountain goats, but it was a scene that could be imagined to be rife with goats.
The time for visiting Sunrise has now passed for the year, the road is only open from July to September, and soon more and more of the national park will close for the winter. Hopefully, we will visit the southern end of the park, parts of which stay open year-round, in the winter for some cross-country skiing and/or snowshoeing.
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| Same scene, different days. |
Trip One: Our first stop was Federation Forest State Park to hike to the Hobbit House. Judging by the amount of spider web I ate, this was not a terribly popular trail. It was dense old wood and quite lovely. We walked for some time along a river and saw many old growth trees. The most interesting part of this forest were the giant stumps of fallen over trees that had sprouted new trees out of the roots. It was as if a once earthbound piece of root felt the first ray of the sun's warmth and immediately perked up and said, "My turn!" After about a mile, we reached the hobbit house, a cute little circle of tree stumps where people had set up the households of various gnomes and other small plastic creatures. Cute, but hardly what I imagined from the description of a "residence worthy of Bilbo Baggins" as the Lonely Planet Pacific Northwest Trips guide billed it. Maybe to truly get the spectacularity of the place, you have to be less than four feet tall.
On to Sunrise! Despite the fact that the mountain was not out (see top picture), the place was phenomenal. Sunrise is the highest point in the park one can drive to - 6,400 feet. By the time we got to the parking lot, we were well above the tree line. What is left are alpine meadows full of purple and red flowers - lupine (although not as tall as the lupine in Maine), mountain heather, and paintbrush. We hiked along the ridge to Frozen Lake, one of many alpine lakes. We even had to walk across some snow. We didn't see any mountain goats, but it was a scene that could be imagined to be rife with goats.
Trip Two: Just one week later, on a clearer day, my second trip to Sunrise was enlightening. I was astounded as I got out of the car that all along our hike the previous week we were so close to the mountain and had no idea. We thought we couldn't see Rainier from that location and were just seeing smaller mountains. Turns out the "smaller mountains" were the bottom half of Rainier. There looming large in front of me was the full mountain surrounded by a crisp blue backdrop. On this trip, we did the same hike at Sunrise, but having skipped Federation Forest this time around, we had time to head farther east from Rainier to Tipsoo Lake, a large alpine lake that provides a great view of Rainier. Tipsoo lake is crystal clear and closely surrounded by lush wildflowers. The national park has done a lot to keep people on the trails here and help the wildflowers flourish. Although, the many, many "stay on the trail" signs did not stop several people from taking pictures in the wildflowers. One woman was even sitting in the flowers as her husband took her picture. Honestly, I hope those people did not read English, otherwise they were some of the most ignorant people I have ever encountered. We got there just in time to catch one picture of the mountain before the clouds rolled in.
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| Rainier from Lake Tipsoo |
