Our first trip after moving to Seattle was about 60 miles south to Mount Rainier National Park. The mountain overtakes the horizon from the entrance onto I-5 near our home, and it can be seen as far away as Portland and Vancouver. Up close, it’s mind-blowing…

We climbed to about 6,000 feet after a long, semi-terrifying bus ride up the winding roads. The crest is at a little over 14,000 feet. These photographs hardly do the real views any justice, but they come close. Very little editing was applied.

These photos were snapped at the Paradise location (named for the pure gorgeousness of it’s wildflower-covered slopes), where there is a visitors center and beautiful mountain lodge. To the south are some lower elevation peaks that are much older than Mt Rainier, and in one of the shots you can see Mount St. Helens faintly in the distance (about 50 miles away).

Mt. Rainier is the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states, but we heard stories from park volunteers about glaciers that have completely melted since they were children (over 50 years). That’s global warming for ya. Yet, it was a 90 degree August day when we visited and we were so high up that we eventually had to stop because of all the snow blocking the path.

Upcoming series: Oregon, Mt. Hood, old-growth forests, and Puget Sound & Lake Washington areas

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 12:46 am and is filed under Gallery, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.