Mt Rainier

Last week the kids and I headed off to Mt Rainier with my good friend and her son.   Ben came up on Friday night and joined us for a weekend of hiking and camping.

Mt Rainier is usually aglow in color in August, thanks to the wildflowers in bloom.   However, this year summer came early and it's been very hot and dry.   As a result, Washington state has been in drought and has been facing some of the worst fires in the state's history.   Even though there is no fires near Mt Rainier, our days were hazy due to the smoke drifting over from the east side of the state.

Despite the dry conditions and lack of wildflowers, the scenery was still very beautiful.    It reminded me more of Autumn on Mt Rainier.

Here are a few of my favorites photos from our weekend away.

On Saturday we did a few small hikes and one medium hike.   Our first hike was near Reflection Lake.  Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating to allow us to see the reflection of Mt Rainier in the lake.

Liz took a pause for a moment and I snapped this photo which I love.

Next we headed to the Grove of the Patriarchs.   It's a very easy and beautiful walk.   The kids loved pretending to hold up this tree.

And the suspension bridge was a hit with all ages.

The boys all thought it funny to lay on the railings.  

This is my favorite of my boys.

I have always found it hard to coordinate 3 kids for a photo.   Putting a 4th into the picture was even harder!   This was the best of the bunch. 

And I adore this one of Kai and Jonathan.

And Isaac.

And this one too!

I asked Kai to take a photo of me - I think he did pretty well :)

Our next hike was super short - around the Box Canyon.   There was a drop of 180ft from the bridge.   Liz decided to ham it up 

And we got this photo a little further away from the edge!

Our last hike was the most beautiful.   It was to Snow Lake.   The colors were more like Autumn here, although sometimes you could catch a glimpse of the last of the wildflowers.

On the way we passed by Bench Lake.  

Our final destination was Snow Lake.  It was stunning and this photo does it no justice.   The water was a glacial blue, surrounded with white rock and brilliant green forests.

A toilet sign was found, and a sudden need came upon a few people.   However, when we finally found it (about 10 minutes walk along another path) we found it was an open air toilet.   Liz quickly decided she could wait another hour to get back but Kai decided to try it out.

Isn't it gorgeous!

By the end of the day we had hiked about 8 miles, and according to my Fitbit, just over 18000 steps and 129 flights of stairs.

Ben arrived on Friday night and joined us for our hike on Saturday.

On Saturday we did a hike called "The Trail of the Shadows"   Early on the walk, I said "I wonder if we'll end up climbing up there?"   Well - the answer was yes!   And didn't we feel it the next day!

Along the Trail of the Shadows we saw this beautiful work of the beavers.   I think they might be almost finished.

As we walked along the Trail of the Shadows, we came across the sign for the "Rampart Ridge Trail".  This was our goal, so we took the turn.   We climbed up and up and up some more.   This was the most interesting tree on the way.

Toward the top, we took a little break on a rock overhang.

And how can I not share this photo of this gorgeous man!

We were almost at the top when we came to a gap in the trees.  All the way down the bottom we could see the park rangers offices and Inn where we had started.   We had climbed about 1700ft.   

But at least the view of Mt Rainier was gorgeous despite the haze from the fires in the state.

Kai was our only tiredness victim this year.   He managed to get a piggy back ride from Ben for the last mile.   I think he did amazingly well, considering we had hiked 5 miles the day before and then 5 miles again on Saturday (half of that uphill)