We went camping at the Mount Ranier National Park this weekend. We stayed at the Cougar Rock campground. The toilets were flushing, but you had to walk a lot longer to get to them. We got there Friday night in time to share "gracious living" (hors d'ouvers) with our camp mates, Lois, Joyce, Dinah, and Jonica (who organized the trip).
It rained a lot on Saturday. A lot of the reserved campsites were empty as folks decided not to brave the weather. We managed to get in a two-mile hike on the Wonderland Trail at Longmire in between rains showers. The afternoon was spent playing pinochle with Joyce under our pavilion while it poured rain. We were able to have a fire for gracious living and really appreciated it: it was cold (in the 50s). Sandra got to play with her new toy: tongs for the campfire.
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| Sandra playing with her new fire tongs |
Sunday was dryer. We drove up to Paradise to the Visitor Center and hiked about a mile on the Dead Horse Trail (no dead horses). It was 42 degrees (about 6 degrees cooler than it was at our campsite). The mountain top was still socked in, but we got lots of beautiful views of wildflowers on the alpine meadows.
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| Hiking on Dead Horse Trail |
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| Nita and Wildflowers (the photo isn't foggy, it's cloudy up there) |
Sunday we drove home, taking the scenic route to the east of the mountain to avoid all the Labor Day traffic on I-5. We had a great time on our trip. It feels like a nice end to a great summer.
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