The tallest of them all - Mt. Rainier





View of the drive to Mount Rainier


On our first morning in Seattle, a clear sunny day, we set off for THE mountain in the area - Mount Rainier.

Alder Lake - Comes on way to Rainier


Mount Rainier is the 5th oldest Natinal Park in United States. It is classified as one of the most seismically active volcano in the Cascade Range, second to only Mount St. Helens I guess.

National Park Entrance


It was easy to catch glimpses of the mountain from far off. Its height (14400 ft approx) is not much compared to Mount Everest (29000 ft approx). The reason it stands out is because the surrounding peaks and areas are not comparable in height. So it looks like this gargantuan presence standing above everything else in the skyline of Western Washington.


First glimpse of the mountain


Plus it is spanked by glaciers on all sides, actually about 36 miles of glaciers cover the mountain. These glacial valleys further cause the mountain to look even grander.

One good thing is that Mt. Rainier has not been converted to a ski resort and so it has not been commercialized. People can do cross-country skiing or snow-shoeing etc. on their own or some walks with the Rangers, but there are no lifts or marked slopes.

We approached the mountain from the Nisqually Entrance, from Longmire to Paradise. There was still lots of snow en route to Paradise, the snow falls being much more than usual this season. A lot of the trails were still closed but the visitor information centre at Paradise, where one actually gets magnificent views of the mountain, provided interesting information. There was a small documentary on the mountain also being shown.



As seen from Paradise


On way to Paradise, there were numerous lookouts where one could pull over to gaze at the mountain. There were a couple of short-distance trails also that were open and took to some beautiful viewpoints.


View of the opposite side from Paradise


An interesting fact is that the mountain was named so by an explorer Captain George Vancouver after his friend in the navy, Admiral Peter Rainier, but Rainier never visited this mountain named after him.

Another view of Rainier from one of the lookouts

Comments

travel plaza said…
Great blog you have!! Awesome pictures and content..Looking forward to more.
9:36 AM
Pooja Aggarwal said…
Travel Plaza,
Thanks for visiting and all the nice words.Will be updating more soon.
1:21 PM
Mridula said…
Pooja, I thought by looking at the pictures first that you were calling those beautiful places paradise but after reading your post I realized it is actually named 'paradise.' What an apt name. Even the first picture is very stunning.
9:46 PM
Pooja Aggarwal said…
Well Mridula, Rumor has it that when the first travelers came to the place and saw the beautiful wildflowers with majestic Rainier in the backdrop, they just exclaimed "This is Paradise" and hence the name.
8:52 AM
Prashanth M said…
Beautiful snaps...
9:32 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wild Animal Park

Image
Sunit and I are big fans of the Wild Animal Park at San Diego - we've been there numerous times and everytime we come back filled with wonder at something new. Spread over 1800 acres, the park provides a lot of space for animals to move and they are not enclosed in small cages as in a Zoo. It also allows the animals to mingle and follow the same natural habits as they would in the wild. The train safari provides a quick tour of the place, but if you have the energy to walk around and view some of the interaction areas, the Park can be a lot of fun. On my second trip to the Park, with Vijay ( a friend who is crazy about wild cats), we caught the Cheetahs during their feeding time. A huge moat separates the viewers from the feeding area, some meat is left on the logs and then far-from-sight the Cheetahs are let loose. One can actually see their long strides as they run to the meat and then feed on it. Vijay gets the credit for this picture. We also went upto the tiger observatory dur...
Read more

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

Image
Its been a while since I last posted. A couple of out-of-town travels, Diwali and then some things back home kept me occupied. But I am back and hope to catch up from where I left off. First weekend of October I travelled to Ann Arbor again to spend some time with Sunit. I also hoped to catch some fall colors which are supposed to be wonderful in Ann Arbor. But as luck would have it, it was still pretty warm in Ann Arbor and Sunit was too busy so we could not travel to the upper peninsula to catch some colors. Hence we compromised for some local gardens itself. We decided to visit the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. We researched on the internet and from what we saw it seemed interesting. It also seemed to have a waterfall and I was very eager to see it. The gardens were beautiful and well kept in their natural splendor. There was a waterfall all right - the problem was it fell just 1-2 feet. Photography can do wonders indeed and the picture we had seen on the internet seemed to be of a go...
Read more

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Image
My latest favorite place in the world is Lauterbrunnen. It is a beautiful valley near Interlaken. For most Indians, Interlaken is synonymous with Yash Chopra movies and classic Swiss scenery. But about 20 miles from Interlaken, is this quaint little town and valley called Lauterbrunnen and this place formed the base of our Swiss travel in the Berner Oberland area. While Interlaken boasts of all the touristy stuff, if you want to live close to the mountains and numerous waterfalls (close to nature as my mom would say), Lauterbrunnen is where you need to be. A small town, that leads to a beautiful valley, with waterfalls falling on either side. When we went out for our first walk on the valley floor, I stood at one point and counted the total number of waterfalls visible - the count was 11. Streams trickle down from anywhere and everywhere. My husband remarked - "This is much like Yosemite, but multiplied by 10'. Days in this place just seemed to vanish - there was so much to do...
Read more