Mt. Rainer was more spectacular than I thought he (?)would be
and it was interesting to see him pop in and out of the fog/clouds all
day.
You would look at one point and he
was just shining so majestically and then the next 5 minutes... GONE without a
trace!
Paradise Valley definitely earned
its name, but we didn’t love the crowds in Paradise.
So, we did one short hike there and then
headed out for the Sunrise Area of the park to camp/hike.
While up there we hiked to a frozen lake
around 8pm and had some serenity and nice pink views of the surrounding
mountains and Ranier at Sunset.
To look out over the horizon at the Cascades
reminded me so much of what I believe heaven will certainly look like when the
New Earth is established. I can’t wait.
Puffy clouds and mountains as far as the eye could see. It was as if we
could have walked out of on them.
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| Saw these signs all over! |
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| Love these rainbows! |
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| Mr. Bear acted like he was starving. Just pawing at the ground like crazy. |
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On the Way to Carter Ralls, Mt. Ranier in background
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As we approached Mt. St. Helens I was really worried that
the fog would be so think that we could not see anything. My nightmare was pretty true for the first 30
mins and then when we reached the top things really cleared off so we could get
a nice view of the crater. I learned a lot up there! I did not know that the mountain is basically
rebuilding itself and there have been many mini-eruptions building up lava
tubes so that the crater is filling in.
It was interesting to read how quickly nature is healing itself and how
well the wildlife returned and adapted. We did some see elk on our way up to
the top. They are such beautiful
creatures to observe.
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| Elk at Mt. St. Helens |
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| Elk hiding in this pic! |
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| pre-eruption |
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| post-eruption |
