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     The first time I visited Mt. Rainier was with my parents in the mid 60's.  We drove in on the park road and had great views of the mountain.  We were looking forward to this camping trip and had planned to spend about 4 or 5 days there.  Things changed.  If you are at all familiar with the Pacific Northwest, you know the weather can change at a moments notice.  It did.  We woke up the next morning to rain.  It rained for three straight days.  One of those days we were poking around the paradise visitor's center and my dad casually asked the ranger where the mountain was.  The ranger deadpanned that it was literally right behind the visitor's center.  He also noted that if it got much colder than it already was, it would probably snow.  My dad decided to leave and we hitched up the trailer and headed over to Olympic National Park where we enjoyed 4 days of glorious sunshine in the rain forest.  Go figure. 
     All of us have since had the pleasure of going back to Rainier.  My wife and I had the opportunity in 1988.  On our first anniversary we decided to take a trip up to Washington.  We started by spending a couple of days in Kings Canyon and then drove north to Medford, Oregon where we spent a night and then to our friend's apartment in a suburb of Seattle.  From there, we did a little day trip to the park and got over to Paradise and then hiked up the trail until we were stopped by snow.  It was the middle of July and the snow was deep and wet enough that we were unable to proceed unless we wanted to get really wet and cold which neither of us wanted to do.  But we had a nice picnic up on a rock up there, had a deer jump right out of some of the brush and walk right past us.  I was too stunned to take a picture.  Apparently, I was too stunned by the scenery to take very many pictures at all as this page attests.
     I'm hoping within the next couple of years to get back up to Mt. Rainier and do some actual camping.  It is a beautiful park and there is a multitude of hiking trails to explore as well.  More pictures will also be taken at that time and eventually posted here for all to enjoy.  Until then, please enjoy these offerings.

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This page was last updated on October 4, 2000