Sunrise Trail

Our Mount Rainier National Park hike began at Sunrise Trailhead.  A visitor's center, gift shop, and day lodge are located there.

The trail provided views of mountains all around, some green,

and some rocky, jagged, or snow covered.

This is Frozen Lake, appropriately named.
In the first few miles, we saw a couple of dozen hikers, but after we passed through this enchanted forest, we were all alone. 
One somewhat hysterical hiker, bear spray in hand, reported she had just seen a grizzly. Since no grizzly is known to live in the area, according to several rangers we spoke to, she probably saw a black bear.  We didn't see any bears, black or otherwise.

Only chipmunks, and the cute marmots shown above.  Rodents like people, who tend to leave lots of lunch leftovers for them to feast upon.

Rainier Flora

Mount Rainier National Park features several plant species that we don't find, or only rarely, in the Uintas:

BearGrass

Avalanche Lily

Pasqueflower

Pasqueflower Seedheads

Lousewort

Shooting Star

Magenta Paintbrush

Lupine leaves with morning crystalline dewdrops

It's still spring at 6000 feet in Mount Rainier National Park.  The snow in the meadows probably didn't melt until a month ago, since snowbanks still remain on some parts of the trail. 

'Rithmetic + Rainier

We just returned from Seattle, where we proudly observed our second son defend his dissertation.  The complex mathematical formulas were Greek to us, but he sure did look good and sound smart.  It was fun to bask in the reflected glory of his success.  (Photo is by Steve's cell phone.  Not the greatest, but we didn't dare distract son or professors by whipping out a real camera!)

Then we were off, with son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law to Mount Rainier National Park for an overnight backpacking trip to Grand Park.  The views of Rainier were impressive.  This shows the north side of the mountain, about 8 miles from the peak.  We were able to view the Liberty  Ridge route, (prominent steep ridge to the right) by which our 2 sons summitted a couple of years ago.

Flowers painted the meadows.

With moonrise came a ground-hugging mist.  The guys insisted on sleeping outside. 

Their sleeping bags were frost-covered in the morning. The ladies had more sense and slept in the tent!