Mount Rainier {July 15}

Justin took today off and we were ready for a family adventure!... after an inconvenient orthodontist appointment for Abigail at 9:30am that we couldn’t move due to her busy summer schedule.

We were on the road bound for Mount Rainier National Forest by 10:15am… with a couple stops for gas, lunch, and a quick running into the dollar store by five excited kids to pick out a $1 treat for the road.

First stop was Narada Falls

from above 

   

and below 

   

Next stop was in Paradise where we hiked up to Myrtle Falls

Drew did lots of running 

   

That’s mi familia up there! 

   

When we got back down the mountain trail Drew found a little bench and laid down for a nano-second.

Our next hike was Box Canyon. The canyon is deep and narrow and rocks below are polished smooth by the rushing water.  I wish pictures could do it justice, but I think you need to see it in person to capture how cool it was. 

The girls wanted to get their picture taken in front a tunnel.  I like this picture of them when they had to dart out of the way.

Next up was Grove of the Patriarchs.  Justin prefaced the hike by telling the kids that this hike was one of his favorite when we was a kid.  From the back we heard Katie exclaim, “Why would I need to know that?”  So funny!

Katie shocked us all but wanting to carry the backpack – which she managed to do for the entire 1.5 mile hike.  It’s almost as big as she is! Tough girl!

This was the only hike that we put Drew in the kidpack and he only lasted a bit before he wanted to get out and walk it.

There was a neat bridge we had to cross, one-at-a-time. 

   

Just a bunch of tree huggers from the northwest

On our drive up to Sunrise we finally caught our first glimpse of the Mt Rainier summit.  We quickly pulled over so we could take a picture.

The visitors center at Sunrise was already closed for the day so we decided to take a short walk out to Emmons Vista.  There were too many clouds to get good mountain view, but we did get a great view of a fox wandering about.

   

It was so cold that there were still piles of snow on the ground.

Everyone had such great attitudes making it a really enjoyable day.  It was a lot of driving, but we stopped often enough that it didn’t seem bad at all.  Mount Rainier is so beautiful even if she was playing hard to get today.  I’m so glad we finally made the time to take the kids.