Flowers and Frolicking at Mount Rainier
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Following a friend’s gorgeous tearjerker wedding at the summit of Crystal Mountain Saturday, we awoke Sunday morning mildly hungover, but thoroughly excited, as we were going to visit the Sunrise Visitor Center at Mount Rainier National Park for the first time. The air was warm with a slight breeze, the sky a bright blue, with only a few lonely clouds passing by. A more perfect day could not be asked for.
At 6,400 feet, the Sunrise Visitor Center is the highest point one can reach by car within Mount Rainier National Park. The center has the usual fare–a gift shop, an interpretive center complete with scale model of the mountain, and food you don’t really want to eat–, but it also has trails going in all directions away from the center. The trails vary in length and difficulty, but all lead you through beautiful meadows teaming with wildflowers and stunning, at times overwhelming, views of Mount Rainier.
It’s a great time to go, but if you do, be sure to head out early. The park gets pretty crowded in the afternoon.
We didn’t see the amount of wildlife MvB spotted during his trip to Paradise, but we did see a number of young deer. They wandered into view from time to time, stopping us in our tracks as we fumbled for the camera. At one point, on our way back to the center, we came across two young does just off the trail, standing at attention, listening to the trees nearby. Without warning and with a crash of branches, a young male burst from the trees and began chasing one of the females. This was exhilarating and a lot of fun to watch until the male turned and began running right at us. When it got just eight or so feet away, it turned sharply left and charged up the trail. Needless to say, our heart was thumping pretty good as we stood there smiling and watching him go.
