Mount Rainier

For our 3-year anniversary, Tina and I had some time over the weekend to visit Mt. Rainier National Park.  It was about a 2.5 hour drive, and we stayed in Packwood, WA, a nearby town.  We started our day of hiking from Paradise, which I believe is one of the more popular areas of the park because of the Paradise Inn.  We did the ~6 mile Skyline Trail Loop hike, and it was definitely worth it.  It was July, and much of the trail was still covered in snow.  However, the sun was out, which made it warm enough for us to comfortably wear t-shirts.

This photo was taken as we were climbing up towards the mountain.  A lot of the trail was covered in snow, which we weren't prepared for, but we still survived.  It made for a funner hike, especially on the way down.  Also, there were some clouds in morning, so occasionally the mountain was covered.  Luckily, there were times when the clouds would move away, so we had to take advantage of those instances for photo-taking.

We hiked up to Panorama Point, which was the highest point of the Skyline Trail.  It had some nice views, so we stopped here for lunch.

Tina wanted to take a jumping picture near the area we ate lunch.  I tried taking a couple of floating pictures, but hers turned out better.

On our way down, we found ourselves sliding down the trail, because it was hard to walk down the steeper parts.  I managed to do most of the sliding on my feet, as if I were skiing without skis.  That was probably the funnest part of the hike.   But Tina opted to sit and slide, which made her pants wet, and I don't think she had as much fun.  But I think she still had fun.

This was a nice little creek and bridge along the path.

I think this was the Reflection Lake, which provided a nice backdrop for the mountain, and was accessible along the Stevens Canyon Road.

We then went to the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail, near the Stevens Canyon Entrance.  We encountered many large trees, as seen above.  Tina wanted to nap against one.

Along the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail was Silver Falls.  The lighting was strange, so the waterfall looks super bright, sorry.  After this, we called it a day and went back to our hotel.  We were planning on hiking more the next day, but Tina got pretty sick, so we decided to head home and get rest instead.  We will definitely be back, though - the park (and mountain) is incredibly beautiful and a few days doesn't do it justice at all.