Along The Skyline Trail

Because of the heavy snow pack last winter, spring has come late to the alpine meadows. Instead of the second wave of more brightly colored flowers, we were treated to the fragile and fleeting beauty of those flowers that emerge as the snow melts, and disappear soon after the snow is gone. White Avalanche Lilies covered the slopes (above) and clumps of Pasqueflower sprang up from the bare ground. This trail along Dead Horse Creek was still snowed in so we turned around and found another way up the mountain side.

Here again there were snow patches to cross.

Where the snow had just melted, flowers emerged.

Hiking at 6000 feet is work for us lowlanders. Boulders served as resting benches.

Above Alta Vista we turned around. Snow covered most trails. The mountain with it's blue glacier ice loomed large, an awesome presence.

And to the south, the Tatoosh Range, with it's jagged peaks, framed Mt Adams in the distance.

Mt. St. Helens was also visible, that gray flat top in the distance. As you know, she blew her top in 1980, just a reminder that these are all live volcanoes.

A chipmunk was looking for a treat, but we had nary a crumb.

Around every turn in the trail is another perfectly framed vista.

Not real mountain climbers, we're having fun just strolling the trails.

In some areas, cleared longer of snow, the Indian Paintbrush, blue lupine and alpine spirea were beginning to color the slopes.

We were hot and tired by the time we got back to the Inn. It was time to check in and have some down time before meeting again for dinner.

Dinner in the dinning room was great, and because we were celebrating birthdays we treated ourselves to rich desserts. Mine was chocolate, of course.

After dinner we went for an easy stroll and watched the sunset color the sky over the mountains.

Nature's Gardens

I had a wonderful birthday celebration on Mt Rainier. When I returned home Saturday afternoon, there were birthday cards awaiting me in the mail box. One of them, one of those special Nature's Sketchbook cards from Hallmark, had this message: Our lives are like gardens, never blooming the same way twice. Four years ago I celebrated my birthday in the same place, and took many photos from the same locations. The header photo and this one above are same place, same date, same time in the morning, four years apart. Mother Nature, like any strong woman, determines her own schedule. Even though we've had warm, dry weather for several months now, the record high snow pack from this winter means there is still snow on the flanks of the mountain, and many of the alpine meadows are just emerging, with their first flush of delicate snow-chasing flowers. These two photos, above and below, are the same place fours years apart...

...and so are these two. But while I was at first a bit disappointed, that didn't last, as we had beautiful blue skies, good company, and Tom had never been there to see those delicate first flowers.

But more about those later. It's time to begin at the beginning.

We had arranged to meet my sister Laurie and her husband Arnold at 10:00 at Longmire Lodge, near the southwest entrance to Mt Rainier National Park.

It was a great place to sit and have a cup of coffee on the lodge porch....

...and enjoy this view.

On the road again, we stopped next at Narada Falls, on the Paradise River.

The road to Paradise announces you are going someplace special, as it is lined with wild flowers and big old fir trees. I'll do a posting of roadside flowers later. Peak-a-boo views of The Mountain surprise you around the bend as you work your way up.

Our destination was Paradise Lodge, where we would be staying for the night. Good thing, too, because it meant we had a parking place reserved, and the day lot was filling up fast.

Paradise Inn was first opened in 1913, and while it has undergone various renovations, it stays true to it's historical roots.

Inside we visited with Dale Thompson, a painter we had met before, and whose works we own several of. As we admired his bird paintings we also studied the painted light shades hanging from the old beams. He informed us that he had painted them in 1980, in a previous restoration. He was required to use the same materials as the old originals and copy them as they had been.

From Paradise Inn we walked over to the newly completed day lodge to check it out. It replaces a previous building now demolished to make way for additional parking. The design is much more in keeping with the old buildings than the modernistic previous lodge.

New materials are reminiscent of an old arts and crafts design.

And the view isn't bad either.

We went back to the Inn and had our picnic lunch on the terrace. And then it was time to hit the mountain.

That will be the next chapter.

Birthday In Paradise

Tomorrow is my birthday and in the morning I'll be heading to my favorite place on Earth, Paradise on Mount Rainier. We'll be meeting my sister and brother-in-law at Longmire Lodge, just inside the National Park boundary at 10:00 AM. From there we'll see the sights, walk in the wild flower meadows, hike the flanks of the mountain and peer into glaciers, have a picnic lunch, and then check in for our overnight at Paradise Inn. We'll have birthday dinner in the dining room of the inn. I hope to get up early Saturday to take some photos in the morning light, depending on the weather. I know it will be sunny tomorrow. I did this four years ago for my birthday and it was perfect. I hope to make it even more so by sharing it with my sister, who's birthday is Monday. I'll be back with photos in a few days.

Vashion Island's Award Winning Garden

Hidden away in the trees off any main road is this paradise. This garden has won awards and has been featured in many garden publications, and rightly so. This is our third time here. Each time there is some new addition, or some area has been reworked. It is a joy to visit, and it would be wonderful to live in these surroundings, but it's way too much work for us.

The llamas are content to munch and watch.