Mount Rainier National Park

 

Mount Rainier in the "window of opportunity"

Aside from the regular city attractions, I wanted to experience nature. So I picked Mount Rainier National Park. Instead of driving down ourselves, we decided to book  a guided tour. Luckily, I found 50% discount on Goldstar.com for the tickets which made it totally worth it.

 The bus picked us up from outside the EMP museum at 7.30 am and after an hour of picking up the rest of the members, we were on our way to the national park. It is almost a two hours drive from Seattle downtown. Mount Rainier is an active volcano and is the most glaciated peak in the US. There are subalpine wildflower meadows, thick forests, mineral springs and lava ridges on its slopes. The visitor center has a short 15 minute film that talks about the geography, ecology and climate of Mount Rainier. It is quite interesting and informative.

During the afternoon, the clouds from Puget Sound envelop the peak and it is impossible to view it. We reached there just in time to click a few pictures and then it disappeared behind the clouds. The guide kept referring to this particular time as the "window of opportunity" to view the peak. 

Mount Rainier making its own clouds

We stopped at the Christine falls, Narada falls, hiked along the Paradise meadow trail and saw the Reflection lakes which are subalpine lakes where one can catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier's reflection. All these spots had fantastic views. There are regions of the old forest where the trees are more than 500 years old!

Narada Falls

Christine Falls

Myrtle Falls

Reflection Lake

Despite being so breathtakingly beautiful, it is interesting to note that Mount Rainier is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world capable of causing large scale destruction caused by the lahars (lava+snow).

Mount Rainier covered by clouds