Rev. 06/30/01
Alaska & beyond - continued 6/29
Mount Rainier
The day
dawned bright and sunny, a perfect day to see The Mountain, Mount Rainier.
We left fairly early, and even from Seattle we got a glimpse of the
the elusive mountain. Our first good view was from where the road to
Crystal Mountain takes off. Mount Rainier was framed with firs on both
sides and my granddaughter wanted a picture of me -- there it is.
On
the road up to Paradise, on the south side, we got a better and closer view.
We were close enough to pick out the glaciers on the mountains flanks.
A bit further up the road, we came around a bend and right there was a deer, grazing right along the side. I stopped the RT and she leaned out the window and took several shots of it. Look closely, it's in the shadows.
Then
we went on up to the Paradise visitors center for lunch -- junk soup, so
she ate part of my chili (which wasn't quite so junk).
Mount Rainier's summit is 14,410 feet high. As we left, we quickly dropped down from 5400 feet at Paradise, to about 2000 feet at the Nisqually Entrance.
On
the way down we saw more deer, and a number of Blue Jays.
The trip back took us through the town of Graham, then on up through Renton, where Boeing is, and Bellevue, the home of Microsoft. Finally we cut across the floating bridge to Seattle.
It had been a great day.
Bob & Carol Graham's Home Page