Mt. Rainier National Park

Wow! Such a massive and beautiful place!

We didn’t realize how lucky we were to see Mt. Rainier during our stay on the east side of the park. I loved the cloud formation and view of a glacier -

On our way in, we visited Bench and Snow Lakes. Bench Lake didn’t provide the reflection I was hoping for…

… but Snow Lake was pretty -

We found later that this is a rare clear view of Rainier -

On our way in to our hike the next day…

… Rainier was playing peek-a-boo, but was still quite majestic -

We set off on the Mount Fremont Lookout hike, aiming to reach a fire lookout tower. We initially passed some beautiful meadows with views of glaciers and adjacent peaks…

… and advanced to seeing forested hillsides with trails and waterfalls -

We saw another marmot…

(enlarge to see details)

… one of several Yellow Pine Chipmunks…

… and a large herd of Mountain Goats (70 of them!), which were taking a siesta -

(again, enlarge to see details)

This was our last clear view…

… before we rounded a corner and were enveloped in fog for the rest of the upward climb (1,200+ ft gain on a 7 mi. hike) -

Briefly, the clouds would clear and we were given a hint of what we were missing…

… before they would close in again -

We descended back to familiar views…

… and continued descending through wildflowers and forests…

… to finish with nearly our last view of Rainier -

I definitely started falling in love with all the different wildflowers…

Mountain Bog Gentian

… and hopefully, I won’t burn you out with all the different species. :)

Fireweed

I’m going to pause here, along with this sleeping bee in a Cascade Aster, and bid you adieu until our next post…