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The lives of 2 blonds and a brunette.


Thursday, July 31, 2008

Mount Rainier

Harry and I have been bad about finishing posting our Washington pictures, but we did want everybody to get to see how beautiful Mount Rainier was when we climbed it a few weeks ago.

This was the scenery just inside Mount Rainier National Park.
There are many rivers like this running through the park. This is a glacial melt river, you can tell by how cloudy the water is. The snow melt rivers run crystal clear.


One of our many Rainier pictures (this one taken on our way to the visitors center). There was this one cloud circling the summit all day long.


Harry and I enjoying one of the many picturesque pull offs.


While driving to the visitors center we stopped to hike the short trip to Narada Falls. It was breathtaking.


The view of Rainier from the visitors center parking lot. This is where we would begin our hike up part of the mountain to Glacier Vista.


Harry and I beginning the hike. There was still 7 feet of snow on the ground, much to our surprise. We were completely unprepared for the hike but we enjoyed it anyway.


Many of the trees lower on the mountain looked like this. These are the tops of evergreen trees, leaning downhill because of the weight of the snow.


This was the "trail" to Glacier Vista. It became somewhat difficult to find the correct way to go as we got higher up.


Rainier, getting closer.


Harry after hiking for about an hour.


Me posing with the mountain.


The view of the mountains. You can see Mount Adams in the background. Many of the hikers thought Adams was erupting (it is a volcano just like Rainier and Mount St. Helens) but as it turns out there was a forest fire near the summit of Mount Adams causing all the smoke and ash to be released into the clear sky.


The view down the mountain. Our car is somewhere down there.


Mount St. Helens in the distance, as seen from near Glacier Vista. This is the collapsed norther side of St. Helens that was created in 1980 when it erupted.


The glacier we hiked so far to see. There is a waterfall caused by the glacier melt.



Harry and me at Glacier Vista.


A 360 degree look at Mount Rainier as seen from near Glacier Vista.


The beautiful valley below Mount Rainier.


A closer look at Mount Adams. It really does look like a volcano.


Two snowmen that looked out of place in July.


This is Reflection Lake. It was pretty iced over so Harry and I didn't understand that it was so named because, when it is clear of ice, it perfectly reflects Mount Rainier.

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