After a good night’s sleep, at 7am I was out of bed and doing some holiday admin. This included trying to upload yesterday’s blog. I was frustrated though by the motels Wifi capacity that wouldn’t let me upload anything.
Just before 8am we headed down for our advertised hot breakfast in the small breakfast area in the hotel lobby. It was very similar fare to a Holiday Inn Express and was fine. One bonus I spotted was the bottle of sugar free maple syrup which I used on a delicious hot waffle I made myself.
By 9am we were all in the car and heading to the Mount Rainier National Park. This year they are trialling admission by booked timeslots which after a few hiccups with their website I had booked for between 9 – 11am today. It was an easy drive and took about 1 hour to get to the entrance where we paid the $30 for the car’s entrance fees.
The road although still good then wound us up the mountain to Paradise which is one of the main lodges within the park. Whoever named it that gets full marks from me. We took a photo by the sign and I then put the relevant Coldplay song in the car. Karen & I joined in the singing but there was muted silence from those in the back.
The main car park was busy and it took a while to find a slot. Getting out of the car it was already noticeably colder at these elevated levels. Even I resorted to putting my fleece on.
We headed to the Visitors Centre and looked around the shop. Karen bought a postcard to send to her Mum, whilst Tracey bought a Sweatshirt as an added layer to wear. Before leaving the Centre we all had a hot drink for fortification.
The first trail we decided to try was to Myrtle Falls. It was marked as an ‘Easy’ Trail. It was a proper made-up path but was steep in places. The falls were pretty enough but I have seen better. Tracey suggested we try to walk back to the Centre in a loop she found on the map. But after a short while I was not convinced it would take us back without crossing a deep ravine. Fortunately, we met a volunteer Ranger who confirmed we did need to go back the way we came.
The air up here felt clean and fresh. The scenery was magnificent. The last of the spring wild flowers looked so pretty. There were some deer grazing close to the path as we walked back and some marmots basking on some rocks above us. The only thing missing was a really good view of the summit of the mountain itself. Annoyingly cloud hid it for all the time we were there.
We diverted our walk back to have a look round the Paradise Inn which was built over 100 years ago for those rich enough to stay in. It was very reminiscent of a Disney Hotel. The lobby had lots of nice tables and we could see most were being used by people to eat their picnics away from the cooler air than was now being blown around outside. We decided to join them and fetched our picnic lunches from the car. It made for a pleasant experience.
Graham was now in need of an afternoon snooze which resets his Parkinson racked body for a while and so we sent him back to the car for 20 minutes whilst the rest of us went to the Theatre in the Visitors Centre to watch a free film all about the mountain.
After this we collected a revitalised Graham and decided to set off on our second trail of the day. The temperature had by now dropped to 6c. We didn’t get very far when we were hit by a squally shower and turned back. We decided to cut our losses and headed in the car back down the mountain.
The weather was much better the further we came down. We stopped at a couple of viewpoints and then parked up at Narada Falls. The best view for these involved a quite steep downward rocky wet path. Karen valiantly tried to get down but gave up after a while. It was the right decision for her but meant she missed seeing the falls in all their glory. The rainbow refraction at the bottom was especially good.
Then we headed out of the park. We tried stopping just past the entrance to get a drink but the small café was suffering a power outage so couldn’t provide any hot drinks. Instead, we headed back to the Country Market Store in Morton and picked up more drinks and snacks from there.
For tonight’s meal we headed (Karen somewhat reluctantly) to Papa Bears Café. It was much nicer inside than out which allayed Karen’s fears. We all ate from the 55+ menu. I had the Pot Roast which was very tasty whilst the others went for the Fish & Chips.
On the way back we decided to explore the nearby local Dollar General store. We found it to be a more upmarket version of Dollar Tree and bought a few bits and bobs.
Back at the motel I spent a while sorting out Graham’s phone for him as he had been unable to use any data-based apps since getting to the USA.
