Fabulous Mount Rainier

Today we drove up to Mount Rainier. Rainier is the most massive single mountain in the continental US. A few peaks in Colorado and California are a few feet higher, but none stands alone like Rainier. And none has the massive glaciers. And the wildflower display at Rainier in the first week of August is absolutely fabulous!! It is difficult for an old, fat sloat to hike the steep trails on the lower slopes of the mountain, even if I am relatively nimble for my age and girth. But it's worth it, to be in one of the most glorious scenes anywhere in the world!! The pic above is Narada Falls, which flows over a lava bench and leaves a perpetual rainbow on sunny days.

Wildflowers abound in the meadows around timberline.

Here, paintbrushes and lupine thrive under the mountain. The trees are mostly gnarly spruces.

The mountain looms over the landscape. Not only here, but clear to Tacoma, almost 50 miles away!

After a lot of huff puff, and plenty of stops to admire the scenery, we've reached an elevation of 6300 feet, almost a thousand feet above Paradise (which, by the way, holds the world record for most snowfall in a season, almost 100 feet!!) Blow up the pic and you'll see a substantial waterfall just left of center, sending snowmelt under the Nisqually glacier.