Mt. Rainier National Park

We arrived at Mt. Rainier National Park in the late afternoon after a relatively smooth drive along WA-97 with lots of fall colours already visible.  We drove up to our first viewpoint in the National Park to see Mt. Rainier floating above the clouds - what a wonderful welcome.  We then drove by Reflection Lakes on the way to our lodgings at Longmire and joined the photographers there watching the sun's reflection on the mountain disappear as it set.  It would be the only time we would see that even though we stayed in the park for three nights.   

 

Mt. Rainier at sunset

The following day was cloudy and the mountains were enshrouded in low clouds. It was a good time to photograph the waterfalls - they were all in low light allowing for the slow shutter speed required for silky waters.  We visited Narada Falls and Christine Falls with the lovely old stone bridge above it.  Christine Falls (below) is split into two sections, the top half is on the opposite side of the road. 

 

Top half of Christine Falls

Bottom half

 

Narada Falls

We headed to the Paradise Visitor Centre, the main centre in the Park. There is a beautiful Alpine meadow just behind the visitor centre with its red and yellow fall colours on display.  Little did we know we were missing something on that first day. We did the short hike up to Myrtle Falls and took the requisite photos. It was only when we went back to the Inn and saw a photo of Myrtle Falls that we realized the mountain was missing from ours!  You can see the before and after photos of the falls below.

Myrtle Falls without Mt. Rainier

Myrtle Falls with Mt. Rainier

Beautiful fall colours on the slopes

We also did a hike to Nisqually Vista to see the Nisqually glacier, which sadly has retreated all the way up to the mountain.  The Nisqually River valley was completely dry.

Nisqually Glacier in the distance - it has retreated considerably. Mountain behind the clouds.

We saw some wildlife while we were on the hikes.

A marmot

I think this is a dark-eyed junco

A real Bambi!

Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw tadpoles in one of the Alpine ponds!

This little chipmunk was right at the Visitor Centre waiting for scraps!

 
We were debating whether to stay on for a third night or forefeit our room charge as the forecast was for rain or snow the following day. It was a good thing that we waited till the morning to decide as we woke up to blue skies! So much for mountain weather forecasts!  We saw the mountain and its almost perfect reflection in the lake - even as we were leaving, the water had started to ripple and the reflection was already changing.  We revisited Paradise, took pictures of the meadow with the mountain atop and also retraced our steps to Myrtle Falls just so we could replicate that photo we saw at the Inn - with the mountain above the falls!

Mt. Rainier on a clear monring

Reflection Lake

Mt. Rainier above the meadow behind the Visitor Centre - absent on our first day!

  We then debated whether to do the 2 hour drive over to Sunrise, the visitor centre on the other side of the mountain that would give us a glimpse of the northern slopes of Mt. Rainier. Our main concern being the long drive and given the changeable weather and the appearance of clouds near the top, it could be hit or miss. We decided to take the gamble and made it to Sunrise in under two hours.  A short hike took us to the viewpoint where we could see the north side of Mt. Rainier with its glaciers.  It was worth the drive as it looked quite different from the south face.

The North face of Mt. Rainier from Sunrise

Mt. Adams in the distance

On our way back to our lodgings, we drove by the Grove of the Patriarchs trail and because it was too early for sunset, we decided to take a hike in the grove just to pass the time. This afterthought turned out to be a great hike with lots of amazing trees to see.  And of course, there was no point in rushing as there was no visible sunset that day either.  But we've seen Rainier in all its glory so we left the following day feeling blessed even though it was pouring rain...

Some striking ranges in the National Park

Giant red cedars, wetsern hemlocks and douglas firs abound in the grove.  Some of the cedars are close to a thousand years old.

Root of the giant cedar

Twins 

Our next stop was Mt. St. Helens but we didn't see much because of the rain. It also happened to be National Parks Day with free entrance so there was a crowd there to watch the two interesting films on the eruption and the regeneration of the mountain.  We were again grateful for a brief stop in the rain and a brief lifting of the clouds to allow us to at least see the foot of the crater and the broad expanse of the Toutle River valley below the Johnston Ridge Observatory.  It was impressive nevertheless.  Moral of the story - never allow just one day for an important destination!

PRACTICAL TIPS:
1. Grab your opportunity to take photos of a scene when you saw it, don't wait for another day or even another moment. The moment could disappear even as you hesitated and likely would never appear in the same form again. 
2. Take all forecasts, especially in the mountains, with a grain of salt.  What you see is what you get. Don't plan too far ahead but do always dress in layers.
3. The ranger at any of the Park Visitor Centres could look up the mountain views for you, whether you could see the mountain top or not. This is useful if you want to see what it's like at Sunrise when you were in Paradise and vice versa, they are on opposite sides of the mountain. Of course, there are no guarantees that conditions will remain the same by the time you get there as they are a two-hour drive apart.

View of the foot of the Mt. St. Helens crater and the Toutle Valley (from Johnston Ridge)

North Cascades

The North Cascades Scenic Highway (Hwy 20) was just a couple of hours drive from Mt. Baker and it didn't take us long to get to our first stop at the Newhalem Visitor Centre. There is a viewing deck behind the visitor centre with a splendid view of the Picket Range - perfect place for a picnic lunch.  The visitor centre gave us a list of places to stop for views and we just followed along. The highway itself was a beautiful road to drive, hardly any traffic when we were there, and perfectly engineered so that you can go around curves comfortably at the prescribed speed without having to step on your brakes - what I would call a BMW kind of road (except we were driving a Hyundai Elantra)! 

The star attraction on the main stretch of highway was Diablo Lake, with its turquoise colour typical of glacial lakes. There were lots of pullouts along the highway and very few cars so we were able to stop whenever we chose to. It was late afternoon by the time we arrived at the spectacular Washington Pass with its view of Liberty Bell.  It was a good thing that we had planned to come back this way the following day as the massif was backlit and it was hard to get a good picture.  

We spent the night in Winthrop, a small town dressed up like a western movie set. Quaint, but not much in town worth seeing and not much other than pub food in most restaurants. The two "fine dining" restaurants were closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so we ended up eating both nights at the Duck Brand, the only restaurant in town that is not a pub or a  pizzeria. In the morning we drove back up Hwy 20 towards Washington Pass, stopped there for photos, this time in better light and then on to the trailhead a few miles away to begin our hike.

The Blue Lake Trail was one of the easiest trails in the National Park but we were slow and it took us two and a half hours just to hike the 2.5 miles. There was an elevation gain of 1000 ft. so there were a lot of switchbacks. It was a good thing there was a beautiful alpine meadow at the halfway point - it was good incentive to push on. People we met coming down from the top were very encouraging and of course the view of the peaceful blue lake encircled by mountains made it all worthwhile.  There were views of Liberty Bell from different perspectives, at the top and also coming down.

The following day we drove south on the way to Mt. Rainier but took a detour to drive part of the south loop of the scenic highway to Leavenworth - dressed up as a Bavarian town. We had our picnic by the river before heading into town for ice cream and a taste of Bavaria - as expected, it was not quite the experience we had when we were actually in Bavaria earlier this year. 

Practical tips: 
1. It is true, it is better to drive the North Cascades Scenic Highway from east to west.  The mountain views approaching the Washington Pass from the east were quite breathtaking and I had to pull out several times to take photos.  Driving east from the Washington Pass the first day, we missed those views.
2. Plan to stop at Washington Pass for photos in the early morning rather than in the late afternoon. The sun is on Liberty Bell in the morning while it is backlit in the later afternoon. 

Picket Range view from the Newhalem Visitor Centre

Diablo Lake

Washington Pass

View of Liberty Bell from the Washington Pass overlook

Tree at the overlook

Looking east from Washington Pass overlook

View going west just before Washington Pass

Bridge in Winthrop

Winthrop

Along the Blue Lake Trail - this is the easy part

Alpine meadow at halfway point on the trail

View of the massif from the trail

The only larch tree we saw - initially thought it was spruce turned yellow!

The reward at the end of the trail

We ate lunch sitting on that rock on the lake, not realizing Liberty Bell was right above us until we took a walk after lunch

Hard to beat that for a picnic view

Unexpected find at the end of the hike - first sighting of a Steller's Jay

The beautiful drive south along WA-97

Leavenworth - faux Bavarian town complete with Maypole and horse-drawn carriage

Colourful balconies at the Bavarian Hotel