Paradise

OH my, what a wonderful day H and I had! We drove to Mt. Rainier this morning -it was pretty cloudy in the cascades and even a few drops of rain on the windshield. But it got better and better (and hotter) all day. We went to the Paradise area, on the south side and took a nice little hike up. Met a visitor who said it was all under snow 2 weeks ago!! this is Sept 8!! And actually we did walk over some patches of snow on the trail maybe only a mile or so up from the visitor center! (I would blip that pix, but there aren't flowers in it!) So many gorgeous shots to pick from, but I wanted to get "the mountain" (with almost blue sky) AND the alpine flowers that included my favorite paintbrush. So this will have to do. :-) The flowers are so amazing to poke up and flower so quickly with their very short season. There were still Avalanche lilies around- the first to show through the snow. Didn't see any marmots. 1 year from today we are planning to spend 3 days at the refurbished Paradise Inn with H's brother and sister-in law from Colorado so will plan more hikes. (H's brother is blipper "stationmaster") That will be great fun!
Mt. Rainier National Park was established in 1899, the 5th National Park in the Nation- it's the highest mountain in the state of Washington - 14,410 ft. (this photo was taken at about 6,700 ft.) We have hiked many of the trails (but alas, never to the top) over the years and are very fond of many inspiring spots. The ride home in pretty bad traffic was NOT good - but it was all worth it! And we feel very fortunate to live near such beauty.