Day 16

We did some hiking on Mount Rainier today. We hiked the Skyline Trail, which is about a 6 mile hike from the Paradise Visitor's Center to a point on the mountain known as Panorama Point. The hike included approximately 1700 feet of elevation change in two miles. This is considered fairly steep!

It was a beautiful day, and we had started our hike nice and early to beat the afternoon sun. We also included a side trip on a trail called the Paradise Glacier viewpoint, which added an additional 1.5 miles of hiking. By the time we were done, we were pretty tired. The scenery was beautiful … the meadows were absolutely bursting with flowers and we really enjoyed the hike. We also saw quite a few marmots, which looked a lot like groundhogs to me.

After we finished, we ate lunch and then watched a short movie in the Visitor's Center. Then, we drove to see a waterfall called Narada Falls. It was really pretty. While we were there, a couple of, what I can only describe as “hippies”, came running down the trail. I had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen, and sure enough, a few minutes later, they emerged from the woods into the river at the top of the waterfall … it was hard to tell for sure from where we were standing … but I don't think they were wearing anything! Fortunately, they didn't fall over the edge, which would have meant certain death.

After that, we did a little driving through the park and then headed back to our campground to play some games and make dinner.

Tomorrow, we have a long travel day ahead of us, which also includes a stop at Mount St. Helens. We're planning to wake up nice and early and get packed up quickly and get on the road. Our destination is Crater Lake, Oregon. Along the way, I plan to publish these last two blog posts and call home. Once again, I'm not expecting to have cellular service once we reach Crater Lake.

It's just starting to rain now, and we're also hearing some thunder. I have a tarp set up over the tent, and I'm hoping that it will keep us dry overnight, and if necessary, provide “shelter” for us in the morning as we pack up the tent and our belongings, so that we don't arrive at Crater Lake with a bunch of wet stuff. We'll see how it goes.

That's it for now.