7.10.08 Mount Rainier National Park

"I get me a burger at Spiffy's from time to time. They have an inside and an outside" -Cute old man at Mt. St. Helen's souviner shop in BFE Washington. We were craving a greasy burger. (This same old man told us we were going to need our snow shoes if we were going to camp at Mt. Rainier. This freaked us out a bit since neither of us even brought a thick jacket!!!!)

Lane Writes:

*got up at 7:30. Feeling Great! Finally!
*Packed up , got ice, washed car, got gas, out of portland by 10 am. (need to go back and not be a sick face)
*Awesome 3 hour drive to Mt. Rainier. We stopped at a rainbow trout farm, saw at least 15 rivers and lakes, saw mt. st. Helen's crater, ate at Spiffy's in Morton, WS.
*arrived at canyon rock campground in the depths of Mt. Rainier national Park around 2:oo. One of the coolest places I have ever seen!!!! HUGE TREES! Pretty wildflowers. SO MANY WATERFALLS!!!
*Set up camp in no time and headed out for a hike to Carter Falls. about 3.5 miles round trip.
*Set out for groceries. Took a detour through Paradise (not just a clever name) on the way.
*made a campfire. Brrrrrr. SO COLD AT NIGHT. There was still snow on the ground in some places. Had to even hike through the snow earlier. We had beers, onion/potato dish, grilled cheese for dinner.
*we finally caught up on our journal and read our books by campfire and lantern light. Did I mention it was FREEZING!!???@@

Jess writes:

Mt. Rainier in the distance. We headed north again.
fresh cherries for a buck
dead baby rainbow trout sucked out of the water with a snot sucker by our new friend Mario.
Saw old growth forests of Mt. Rainier national park
biggest trees yet
close your eyes and picture paradise. That is how many waterfalls Rainier has.
best hike ever
over hand made bridges, forged over glacier made rivers.
Carter Falls
Six feet of snow!
Nasqually River
climbing down to a boulder in the middle of a raging river
Canadians hiking in sandals with socks
camping just under the mountain
freezing unless we touched
snow hike
bench lake
avalanche lilies
fried chicken and homemade bread
we said goodbye to Mt. Rainier.


Rainbow trout farm. tried to take a pic of the millions of baby trout, but it came out like this. cool anyway.

the state hwy's in washington are george washington's head!! hahahahahaha.

pointing to the crater that is now Mount. St. Helens. just in case you don't know what a mountain is.

Jess in front of Mt. Rainier.

crossing the Nasqually River.



tree hugger.


Carter Falls.

Snow on the ground!



dangerous climb down to the raging falls =)


That is Mt. Rainier!



Toilet at our campsite

best campsite ever!! I was scared of bears.