We had a lot of ground to cover today. We left Seattle this morning with a destination of Mt. Rainier in mind. Before we reached the park entrance Melanie suggested that we stop to get a lunch that we could pack in our cool because the dining options at limited in the park. We stopped a grocery store and stocked up on picnic supplies.
After our mission of lunch provisions was taken care of we hit the entrance to the park where Tom paid $10.00 for his lifetime pass that he can use in any park in the federal system. Woo hoo! Finally a perk to being his age ;-)
We were a bit concerned when we left the hotel this morning that our good weather luck had run its course. The sky was overcast and while not cool, it certainly wasn't warm either. On our way to the park it began to break up and by the time we entered the park we had blue skies overhead.
We drove into the park and after stopping at a waterfall and several viewpoints we were ready for lunch. For the second time this holiday, we have eaten lunch in July, in the snow. We had a great view of Mt. Rainier as a back drop as we picnicked. We sat in our shirtsleeves and felt warm as kids played in the snow behind us.
Back on the road, we headed a short distance up the road to Paradise. Paradise is the name of the stop where the visitor's center is located. We hiked uphill and through the snow to a waterfall and another different view of the mountain and its glaciers. It was putty humorous to see so many people dressed so differently for the experience. There were serious hikers in boots with hiking poles and there we people in flip flops, and everything in between. Tank tops, down jackets... You get the picture.
After we hiked back down to the visitor's center we headed toward the park exit. We made a few more stops at some gorgeous gorges, bridges and reflective lakes, and walked a few more of the shorter trails before we exited the park.
On the way back to Melanie and Steve's house Melanie promised us a town named Packwood would be filled with elk for us to see. She said their would be elk in front yards, elk in pastures, elk in parking lots.... Ya, and they promised us bears in Whistler too... But look how that turned out in the end... We saw our bear, so off to Packwood we went. We approached the town and Melanie said "there's the Welcome to Packwood sign" and suddenly 5 feet ahead there was an elk in someone's front yard. Oh! There's 3 in that field! Look! One standing next to the hotel!!! We stopped for some pictures and Melanie's promise fulfilled, we headed out of town. I can't begin to explain it but we saw one or two elk just past the edge of town, but why they chose this town, and how they know where the city limits are escapes me!
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