Mountains
Wildflowers
Waterfalls
Forest and trees
Pike Place Market
Miscellaneous
Friday, July 27 I flew to Seattle for a week of photography with some of my friends. I started and ended my trip by visiting my mother, who lives in Washington.
Saturday, July 28 Mom and I drove to my uncle's home for a family gathering - the reunion is next year - this was a picnic for whoever happened to be in the area at the time. After an enjoyable afternoon there, I left to join my friends at Mt. Rainier (Mom got a ride home with some cousins who live in Port Townsend.)
It didn't take very long to drive to our hotel in Packwood, WA. I encountered only one eight mile stretch of I-5 where traffic slowed to a crawl. An overturned tractor-trailer was the problem. My friends were coming in from the Seattle airport and encountered a number of problems, mostly closed roads. Highway 123 between the Sunrise area of Mt. Rainier and the Paradise area of the park was closed because it was washed away in the flooding experienced last November (18 inches of rain in 36 hours) and isn't expected to reopen this year at all. And US 12 was closed between Packwood and White Pass because of a rock slide. It would reopen during our week there. However, they didn't discover the closed roads until they had almost reached Cayuse Pass. As a result, they had to retrace their route almost back to Seattle and come in the west side of the park. They arrived at the hotel shortly after I checked in.
Sunday, July 29 We woke to overcast skies and some ground fog, perfect weather for shooting wildflowers and waterfalls! We headed into the park and soon climbed the winding roads to reach Paradise, the main Visitor's Center for the park. We spent some time driving the loop around Paradise Valley, shooting wildflowers (like these rosy spirea in the photo to the left) and waterfalls, then dropped back down to Christine Falls (photo on right). After some time there, we continued on down the mountain to Longmire, which has an inn and restaurant, where we had a late breakfast.
The waitresses at Longmire recommended the Trail of the Shadows, which started just across the street and took us through some of the early settlement areas in this part of the park. It was a very interesting and easy trail that showed us a side to the park that none of us had thought about. Thank you, Charity and Jan!
After some time in the Longmire area, we headed back to Paradise to explore some of the easier, close to the Visitor's Center, trails, meeting at the Visitor's Center at 4:30. I found this Jeffrey's shooting star (left) near the Visitor's Center. They're building a new Visitor's Center, due to be open in 2008 or 2009, but the old one is a fascinating visit. From there, we returned to Longmire for an early supper, then back to Packwood for the night.
Monday, July 30 The clouds were still with us this morning, but dissipated by early afternoon, giving us our first glimpses of Mt. Rainier. We started our day by a visit to the Grove of the Patriarchs. Well, we tried to start there, but the footbridge over the river was still closed. The flood damage in the area was massive. So, we went off the other side of the parking lot and followed a trail down to Silver Falls (photo on the right). There was a lot of flood damage in this area, also. The bank facing the falls had been scoured of trees. This gave an unimpeded view of the waterfall, but the destruction was horrifying.
After returning to the car, we drove up to Box Canyon. It's an interesting feature to see, but impossible to shoot a photograph that does it justice, especially with the brighter light we had when we arrived - the clouds were breaking up. We had bright sunlight, but Mt. Rainier was still shrouded in clouds. This canyon was dug by a glacier and was very narrow and very deep - over 200 feet deep for most of its length.
From there, we drove back to where the road crosses the Paradise River and shot photos of the waterfall in that area. As far as we could tell, this is an unnamed waterfall (on the right). We also stopped at Reflection Lakes on our way back to Packwood just to check out the possibilities. The wind was rippling the water just enough to destroy any reflections of the mountain and Mt. Rainier was still playing hide and seek (see photo to left). We'll be back!
Tuesday, July 31 Since the skies had cleared by the time we returned to Packwood and US 12 had just reopened, we got up early this morning and headed for the Sunrise side of the park. This involved a 120 mile detour... We spent the early morning hours at Tipsoo Lakes, then continued to the Visitor's Center at Sunrise, which is only open seasonally. We explored some of the trails in the area and had lunch at the snack bar there before returning to Tipsoo Lakes for more wildflower shooting. The mosquitoes, which had been negligible earlier in the trip, came out in swarms! And none of us had any insect repellent with us! We ate at a very nice restaurant on the way back to Packwood. It was a very long day.
Wednesday, August 1 Another pretty day, so we headed back to Paradise again, stopping to spend some early morning time at Reflection Lakes along the way (see photo to right). The park service had a camera crew there, also. They were filming a new park documentary. Once the breeze started picking up, ruining the perfect reflections, we continued on to Paradise to hike some of the other trails in that area. I went on the Emmons Vista Trail. We had another late breakfast at Longmire this day, then, when everyone was finished for the day, returned to Packwood for a pizza.
Thursday, August 2 Yet another pretty day. We headed back to Paradise again with Myrtle Falls our first destination. I had set up one shot above Myrtle Falls when my friends called my name saying, I thought, that a big swarm had just passed under my tripod. (We were very harrassed by mosquitoes on this trip and I thought they had spotted a massive swarm right under the tripod. Also, Edith Creek was making a lot of splashing noises, making it hard to hear.) I nodded and went back to composing the image. Once I rejoined my friends, I discovered that they had really said that a big marmot had gone under my tripod! He had come up from under the other side of the bridge, crossed the trail passing under my tripod, then went back under the bridge on this side... And I missed it!!! However, I didn't miss this patch of wildflowers on the road to Paradise (left).
From Myrtle Falls, we dropped back down the mountain to the Snow Lake Trail and hiked out to Bench Lake.
It's a beautiful little lake with a perfect reflection of Mt. Rainier (see photo to right). Then Longmire again for lunch (we got there just after they closed for breakfast). After lunch, Bill and Julie dropped Pam and I off at Narada Falls, where we'd parked my rental car. They were planning on hiking out to Comet Falls (a 4 mile round trip) and neither Pam nor I felt up to that. We drove down to Ashford, where we had heard there were some neat shops. Well, sort of.
One of the shops was a beading shop. The owner had some fantastic hand-beaded items, but the store was a mess! One side had a large piece of plywood nailed to the side with "Joan's Drive Thru Beads" painted on it. Huh? A local drunk had run into her store a week earlier at 3 am and almost destroyed it. If the owner had followed her normal routine, she would have been playing games on her computer right where the truck hit the wall. She'd never have survived it. She was in a talkative mood, so we talked with her for a while, then drove back to Packwood.
Friday, August 3 Checking out day. We all packed up and soon were on our ways. Bill and Julie were returning to Seattle before continuing to Vancouver and Pam and I were going to spend the rest of the day with some photography friends in Seattle. On the way, Pam picked up the ingredients for Manhantan clam chowder, which she fixed for lunch for the four of us. Then the three of us gals grabbed our cameras and headed to Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle for some fun. And it was a blast! The flowers on the left are just a sample of what we saw there. The photo on the right shows Julie looking over the flowers, possibly trying to decide what to shoot next.
We finally had to stop so that we could get back to their house for dinner that night, which was a delicious salmon (grilled outside), corn on the cob, bread, and homemade wild huckleberry pie! Yum!! Thanks, Terry and Julie! All too soon, I had to leave or I'd miss the ferry back to Mom's house. Pam would stay on with Julie and Terry until early Sunday morning, when she would fly home.
I made it to the ferry dock and they had just started boarding. Best connection I've gotten there in a loooooong time! I called Mom once I boarded the ferry so she wouldn't be worried. The rest of the trip back to her place was uneventful. However, soon after I got there, she informed me that we'd have to dig a hole in the yard about two feet by two feet and two feet deep - big enough to bury her computer, which she said was dead. Well, I cold booted it and it came back just fine, so no burial...
Saturday, August 4 A quiet day at Mom's house. We got some gardening done, including planting some mums and marigolds (see the photo on the right) that Mom had waiting. My brother and his family and our Uncle Bob showed up for dinner. We wound up playing a game of dominoes after dinner and just had a pretty good time. Up to the point where we discovered a puddle on the kitchen floor. Mom's dishwasher had sprung a leak. John, my brother, would return on Sunday to take a look under it in the daylight.
Sunday, August 5 More yardwork today, mostly weeding and deadheading. John explored the dishwasher and found that the pump would push water out onto the floor when it was draining. Concensus - new dishwasher needed.
Monday, August 6 There were two errands on our list this day. The first was to take Spooky, Mom's cat, to the vet to have his claws clipped. He's a big boy and hard for the two of us to handle. And he has extra toes on three of his feet and those claws never get worn down and he doesn't like them touched!!! He was very good for the vet, however. The claws were soon nice and trim. Then we stopped in Sears to pick out a new dishwasher. It would be delivered the next week.
Tuesday, August 7 I was up early as I had to catch an early ferry to get to the airport for an 11:40 flight. I missed one ferry, but caught the second of the four possible ones I could have caught and still made it to the airport on time. So, I was a couple of hours early for the airport. That's better than being late these days. Most of the flight home was uneventful. However, I wound up spending an extra hour in Cincinnati while the airline tried to find our flight crew....
I'd like to thank the Park Rangers and volunteers who do such a great job maintaining the numerous paths and trails in Mt. Rainier National Park, especially the ones that needed to be restored after the extensive flooding that occurred in November 2006. Without these nice paths, most of the park would be inaccessible. Thanks also to all those park visitors who obeyed the injunction to stay on the trails. The meadows of our national parks are fragile and easily destroyed.
My friend, Pam, took a picture of me on the Trail of Shadows, the historical trail near Longmire. She then imported it into Painter and came up with the photo on the left, which she has kindly allowed me to post here. She does the most wonderful things to photographs!