October 3, 2015 Rainier National Park, Washington

Another day at Rainier. It rained all night, it was cloudy and misty and in the 60’s when we headed out.

 

The gate into Rainier today and  in the early   1900’s. Cars went into Rainier in 1907, but it wasn’t until 1914 that they allowed women to drive cars into the park. We drove into a cloud, fog so thick that you could barely see the road. It was really scarier when you could not see over the cliffs than when you could see what was down there.

 

As we went higher up the mountain the fogged started to dissipate.  We were above the fog around 5,000 feet.

You could still see it down in the valleys. The wind was blowing it down canyon, you could see it boiling up.

I guess the tourist’s can’t read the don’t feed the animals signs. A small waterfall in the sunlight on Paradise creek.

 

We had wanted to hike in the old growth forests, so we went back down to the fog. The trees in the fog were cool gives them an aura. We hiked to Upper Christine Falls.

When the park service took over and cars began to come into the park they built this gas station. There was also a fancy Inn, but it burned down. The auxiliary building with   extra  rooms is now the Inn, but it does not have the fancy lobby most National parks have.  Here is a cross section of a 700  year old tree. It has  events and dates marked on it.

 

In the restroom in the Longmire area I saw these basics of toilet use in the bathroom. I love the Men-stand close, it is shorter then you think!!  John took this shot of me in front of the Longmire National Park Inn.

We hiked the Trail of the Shadows, it goes around the meadow  with a  hot spring.  The  Longmire family had a lodge  that was  a medicinal hot spring resort. It is in old growth forest. The ground is carpeted with moss here. John is standing near one of the old soaking tubs. Below is Rusty fountain. There is a lot of iron in water.

 

Then we hiked the Two Firs trail, it is also old growth. John hugged this old guy and got sap all over himself. John is standing behind one of the giant downfalls. You can only see his head,the log is so big.

 

He had to lay way back by this giant to even see the top.  Here I am with a big one. I love these old growth forests.

    

Mushrooms, a moss lined creek, vanilla leaves, fungus on a stump and a banana slug inside a rotting tree. We stopped at Copper Creek Lodge for snacks and a drink on the way back. This lodge was built in 1917 and has a long interesting history. It is now a restaurant, lodge and cabins with hot tubs.