Mount Rainier National Park, WA

Narada Falls, Mt Rainier National Park, WA

Tuesday, July 24, Mount Rainier National Park, WA - 94.8 Miles Today,10,410.7 For the Trip

Another day, another mountain! Although I got a glance at Mt Rainier on the was to pick up my trailer last year, it was so cloudy by the time I got there I decided to skip the visit. I was stationed at Fort Lewis, WA in 1969 for the remainder of my time in the army after returning from Viet Nam. On Christmas, my wife Carol & I drove as close to the mountain as we could get to find some snow. Even though it is getting towards the end of July, there is still plenty of it around. All the roads and passes are open, however some of the trails are still snow covered. Lots of photographs, many of the mountain, many of the waterfalls in the area, a bunch taken at Paradise, a visitor center & lodge as close as you can drive to on the southeast side of the mountain.

When I got back to my parking space in Paradise a fellow visitor told me that they had seen a bear & two cubs while standing next to my trailer. We looked for them, but they had moved on. On the hill down from Paradise we both stopped & he found the sow again. I got a couple of photos, but by the time I got out the tripod & my 300mm lens & doubler, she had moved back into the shadows. I waited a long time for her to reappear, but she never did. So, there are a couple of fuzzy photos of a bear.

After leaving the park I started looking for a campground. Although I found a few, they were pretty bad looking. I finally found a nice park in Eastonville, WA. The park is called Alder Lake Park, and looks to be built by Tacoma Power Utilities. A fairly level pull through with electric & water for $29.00. They also have full hookup sites for $31.00 and tent sites for $22.00. Much nicer than last night, but still no cell connections. I did have one long enough to download my email while driving through the park, but couldn't update the pages. So, looks like it won't be until tomorrow that the "Mountain" pages appear.

I'm not going to post all of the 47 images I'm posting for the park here - I'll do a separate Mount Rainier page, and post some at today's LakeshoreimagesPost.

Since I have a picnic table to cook on & the refrigerator is still not working on gas, I'm goingto eat the last Bubba Burger to help clean out the freezer. So far, by plugging in every night the frozen stuff has stayed frozen, but when the refrigerator is out for repair, everything may thaw...

Again, this won't get posted until tomorrow.

It is now tomorrow & I finally found a connection at McDonalds near Puyallup, WA. 

Till Tomorrow -