State 49: Washington pt. 2

Day 4: Mt Rainier

Comparison photo- crappy weather day vs beautiful weather day!! 

Thankfully it was only about a 15 minute wait to get into Mt Rainier National Park! We got there around 9am (on Labor Day Monday!!) We entered via the Nisqually entrance and started with the Trail of the Shadows. Unfortunately, my mom had an upset stomach and she missed out on a lot of today. 

My dad, Mike, and I saw Christine Falls and Narada Falls, had lunch at one of the lodges, and then went to our accommodations for the evening. (We did this to get my mom settled and anyways we were having horrible weather so we couldn’t even see Mt Rainier!) 

Christine falls

Narada falls

We wanted to do paradise and reflections lake, but the weather made it yucky and blah. (Mike and I did come back later that afternoon to scope it out, but it was miserable and you couldn’t see anything!) 

Bad weather photo

Reflection lake- bad weather photo

Reflection lake- bad weather photo

Day 5: Since the weather was crappy on the previous day, Mike and I decided to wake up early and get to the park around sunrise. (6:37am!) Mom still wasn’t feeling well and Dad doesn’t like to wake up early so it was just the two of us. OH MY GOODNESS !! What a difference a day (and change in weather) makes !!

Only one car in front of us at the entry and then we headed straight for paradise. The views were amazing and it was right at sunrise so the lighting was perfection! 

We got some great shots! We then drove down towards reflection lake when we saw something in the road.. it was a bear!!! I have never seen a bear in real life before other than at the zoo. I was ECSTATIC!!

Meanwhile my window got stuck in the halfway position as the bear casually strolled by my door. 

Reflection lake was phenomenal !! So beautiful !!

 It was such a great morning and we were probably out of the park by 8am! (Original plan did not involve going back a second day, but due to weather we just had to!)  
Stay tuned for the rest of day 5 and the start of a new blog post: STATE 50- OREGON!!!!!