Vacation week Day 1

We planned a week long road trip for this week around Paul's mom's visit. 

Day 1 was a trip to Mt. Ranier. We can see Ranier most days from

Seattle but it is off in the distance. We visited last summer and hiked a portion of the skyline trail but it was cloudy and the mountain wasn't visible even from the base. 

This year's trip was dramatically different and the views were amazing. 

We parked and had a picnic lunch. 

We didn't have a plan but we just wanted to stroll and see where we ended up. A short trail led us to a waterfall that had a wonderful view of Ranier in the back. 

The mountain is so big it's hard to understand. You can see people on the bridge over the falls. 

Ranier is a volcano that stands at 14,000 ft. high. People climb the mountain every year and usually train and spend an overnight or two to reach the top. It is truly a sight to see. 

After we left the falls we decided to keep hiking to see if we could make it to a look out point. The trail kept going and going and we kept trucking straight uphill. Ina was in charge of whether to keep going or not and as long as she said yes we kept going!

Along the way we saw a bunch of marmots which are similar to groundhogs  but furrier and a bunch of chipmunks. There is on here in the picture on the rock. 

We made it to a trail that was supposed to take us to Panorama point and it was closed due to ice!!

Noah and I were leading so we kept going to a different trail that took us much higher than we expected. Along this new trail we saw a spot that snow and a part of the glacier were accessible. We were really excited to touch it! 

At this point we studied our maps some more and figured out that we were at 7,500 ft--over half way up the mountain. There were teams around us practicing ice rescues and Noah was enthralled. He wanted to learn how to ice climb. 

We finally reached Panorama point and began the descent back down the mountain as the sun began to set. 

On the way back down we saw some black tailed deer sitting peacefully in the meadow.

The sunset continued to follow us down the mountain until we reached the visitor's center. At the base there were two black bear cubs along the trail climbing trees. We were far enough away that we weren't in danger. 

When I look at the mountain now I feel differently about it. I can't believe we were so high up there! Paul and I even talked about researching what it would be like to make it to the top!

After we left the park we drive two more hours to Kelso, WA and spent the night.