Mount Rainier National Park (Day 1)

July 2nd, 2009 - Mount Rainier National Park (MRNP) is less than 1oo miles away from Seattle, Washington. Having arrived at Seattle, late the previous night, I left for MRNP only around 9 am. Mount Rainier is an active volcano, 14411 ft high (2.7 miles) and thus the highest and the third most voluminous one in the Cascade Mountain range. The Cascade range spreads from Washington to Norther California, along the West Coast. It is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous US and has 26 different glaciers around its periphery. The summit has two craters each about 1000 feet in diameter. I approached the park from the North East entrance.

Having left straight from office the previous night, I had to buy a pair of good shoes and some warm clothes on the way. The first full view of the magnificent mountain was seen right after the entrance. The glaciers towards the North side are quite expansive and have not been shrinking as rapidly as some of the others.

Cayuse Pass (4694 ft) and Chinook Pass (5432 ft) have pretty good views. Tipsoo Lake along highway 410 was frozen and seemed to be just begun melting in early summer.

I had not received a park map and unintentionally moved along that way towards the East and out of the park. The drastic change in elevation and vegetation gave me quite a warning but the road seemed to be heading South. Having lost 30 minutes and much more ($), due to this mishap I returned back and checked with a ranger about the right directions. The trip seemed to have begun on a wrong note. More was to follow, as the shorter route to Paradise was closed due to bad road conditions following the winter damage. This was to cost a further 2.5, hours as I had to head 25 miles South to Packwood , then 23 miles West to Ashford and 12 miles to Paradise along curved roads. A quick stop at a gas station at Packwood allowed me to fill up gas (I was not open to any more disasters), grab some food and head ahead.

The area around Longmire at the entrance has National Park Inn and a thickly forested area with a camground or two. Along the way are Carter Falls (2.2 mile round trip from the road), Christine Falls and Narada Falls.

Carter Falls

Christine Falls

Narada Falls

One then crosses the Nisqually river, on a high bridge along a wide river bed that once carried lahar (volcanic slushy material) at the time of the last eruption more than a century back. Only a century back the Nisqually Glacier was way down, closer to the bridge and is hence one that has been receeding unlike any other glacier on the mountain.

A few stops at viewpoints along the way then took me to the Paradise Inn located at 5400 ft just at the base where the steep 9000 ft climb to Mount Rainier begins. After having checked in at the hotel, I went along a short 0.5 mile trail to Myrtle Falls. The area was more or less completely covered in snow (soft). I was told that only the last 10 days had opened up the paved paths in patches. The views in all directions were fantastic and trails in snow were certainly something that added to the thrill.

A light dinner at Paradise Inn, was followed by a 45 minute Evening program by a park ranger. It had been a while since I had experienced sunset at 9 pm and dusk at 10 pm. Although, not too tired I had to call it a day, since I knew what the plan next day was going to be ....

http://picasaweb.google.com/ahire.parag/MountRainierNPSeattle?authkey=Gv1sRgCKSYyuXylJ2kxgE&feat=directlink