Heading north from Crater Lake, past Portland and into Washington State we headed to Mount Rainier National Park. Unfortunately we arrived to late for a campsite in the park so we stopped at Alexander’s Inn. Interestingly, they have a house for rent adjacent to the Inn and that night it was not taken so we were able to negotiate a fine price for the four of us (there were three bedrooms). We had a very good time and a break from camping where we could cook up a big dinner and sleep in a bed!

We were up at the crack’o’dawn the next day to (successfully) find a campsite inside the Park. Hiking was the order of the day and we wasted little time heading up to Paradise!

Here is a view of Mount Rainier taken from a switch-back on the road to Paradise. Note the belt of clouds! Our target hike was to climb the Nisqually moraine as far as we could get round-trip in one day.This photo shows the Nisqually river from below looking up to Rainier on the top left. You can see the snake of the river in the flat of the valley. The moraine is hidden behind the hills centre as the river curves to the left to meet the Nisqually glacier on the site of the mountain.Here is the view from up near the glacier -- it is to the lower right out of site beneath piles of dirt and rock in this photo. You can see the moraine walls left and right and the river bed far below. The road to Paradise crosses the river on the bridge visible far below.Here is the view looking back along the way we have climbed from the edge of the moraine. The trail runs along the edge of the moraine at the top but angles off and up the valley/meadow shown centre. The Nisqually river flows to the right of the photo.Of course, after any exercise comes the required beer fest. After festooning our campfire with dead soldiers we found something very funny. Strange though, no one can remember just *what* was so funny! Note the pile of firewood. The fellow who sold it to us did say it was a 'bit green' -- heck, it was less than 3 weeks since it was a nice big western cedar tree! It took a heck of a lot to get it burning but once it took it burned hot and long -- great for campfire cooking.

 

 

Crater Lake National Park 1993
Columbia River Gorge 1993