Mt. Rainier

It's hard to believe that it's been a couple of months since I visited Mt. Rainier National Park and I'm just now getting around to posting some images.

Mt. Rainier, also known to Native Americans as Mount Tahoma, is the largest mountain in the Cascade mountains and in the state of Washington. But during my short stay, I barely saw it :(  I seem to have the bad luck of having bad weather follow me on my trips. This trip was no different and I didn't get to do as much shooting as I had planned.

The first day that I arrived in the Park, the weather was fantastic. This was the only day that I was able to clearly see Mt. Rainier. I stayed at the Paradise Inn which is located on the south side of the mountain. The first night I shot this of the milky way looking towards the Tatoosh Range.

There are lots of trails to hike in the Park and it's easy to find a trail that suits your fitness level. One day I hiked the Grove of the Patriarchs trail which has lots of really big, old trees. I came upon this large, hollowed out log and I used my flashlight to "lightpaint" the inside of this tree.  

Christine Falls

Silver Falls

While hiking the various trails around Mt. Rainier, you're likely to see lots of water falls. Christine Falls is actually located on the main road, in fact the arch you see above the falls is the main road. So, there wasn't any hiking involved in getting here but still it's a great view. Silver Falls (image on right) required a hike of a few miles to reach. It was a nice way to spend several hours since Tahoma was covered with fog.

The Paradise Inn is a rustic lodge built in 1916. It's located in the Paradise area of the national park. I think one of the reasons it's called Paradise is because of all the wild flowers that are native to the area. Since this was my first visit to Mt. Rainier, I thought there were a lot of wild flowers. But, I was told this year was actually a bad year for the wild flowers due to the severe drought conditions out west. The wild flowers are supposed to be at peak bloom during the summer but closer inspection showed that the flowers that were there seemed very dry. I can only imagine how magnificent it must be during a peak year. The flower image above was taken near the Paradise Inn.

Since the weather was cool and foggy most of the time, it was nice to be able to enjoy the lodge. Bill the piano man would play every afternoon. And I mean he would PLAY and PLAY, typically for a solid 3-4 hours without even pausing between songs. If that wasn't impressive enough...he was FANTASTIC, too! 

Since the lodge doesn't have any modern amenities (no TV, radio, internet, cell phone signal, etc.) it was interesting to just sit in the great room area of the lodge and watch all the folks pass the time by socializing, reading, families playing games, or just sitting back and listening to Bill. At about 7:30 pm, Bill would leave and give the lodge over to one of the park rangers who would give a presentation about one aspect of the Park. Since the weather was pretty cool while I was there, typically in the 50's to low 60's, there was always a fire going in the two fireplaces in the lodge. There is a fireplace at each end of the great room (you can see one fireplace in the above image).

Despite the fact that weather had a negative impact on my photography plans for this trip I still enjoyed my time at Mt. Rainier National Park. I enjoyed the character of the Paradise Inn and enjoyed the trails I was able to hike. I've added this to my list of place I want to revisit. I'll hope for better weather next time but if that doesn't work out, I'm sure it'll still be ok. 

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Gary Stiles.