Absolutely AMAZING!!!

Hi there, All! I am safe and sound in Forks, WA. I arrived here this evening after spending the past two days at Mt. Rainier National Park.




I can sum up that experience in one word: AWESOME!! I already know that Mt. Rainier is one place that I will return to in the future. I stayed at Paradise Inn. Paradise Inn is a National Park Lodge that sits at 5400ft on Mt. Rainier.

Can you believe there was still a snow pack of around 9 feet? They said that last year at this time the wild flowers were in bloom.

Yesterday, I went on a group hike with one of the park rangers and we hiked through the snow to an overlook for the Nisqually Glacier on Mt. Rainier!

There was a low ceiling of clouds so the summit of the mountain remained hidden most of the day. Last night, I attended the Park Ranger chat on the history of people trekking to Mt. Rainier. At night, the lodge is pretty dead. Since there are no televisions or internet or cell reception, many people hang out in the lobby and play games. You can check various games out from the reception desk. A couple of Army guys (Josh and Nick) invited me to play Rummy with them. They are both originally from Washington, but are currently stationed in North Carolina. They are on leave for a month after spending 15 months in Iraq. I won the game, by the way! As I was checking out this morning, I ran into them in the lobby. They were going to hike to the Nisqually River basin and check out some of the waterfalls on their way out of the park and they invited me along. I followed them down in my rental car and we stopped along the way at different turn-outs.

It was nice to have some "locals" show me the hotspots.

There are so many things to see and enjoy in the park, however, the snow made it difficult to navigate many of the trails.

We stopped and got burgers on our way out of the park, then went our separate ways. I had a long drive ahead of me (approx. 5-6 hours)!

There is so much more for me to blog on but it is getting late.

I spent a lot of this evening downloading pictures from the past few days.

I will have more time tomorrow night to give more details of my experiences. Until then-Have a wonderful day! :-) By the way, I should have constant cell reception for the next few days if needed. I'll catch you later-I love you guys!