Mt. Rainier National Park
For my dad’s birthday, my parents visited me in Seattle. We went to Mt. Rainier National Park, which is a 2 hour drive away from Seattle. I’ve always seen Mt. Rainier in the distance from Seattle, and I really wanted to visit this park :) In the national park, there are both meadows and steep mountains, with waterfalls and lots of wildflowers. If you’re trained and have the right gear, I think you can try to hike up Mt. Rainier itself, or maybe just part of it since the top is covered with glaciers. Also, for most of the year, the park is pretty snowy, so you need snow navigation skills to hike along the trails. Now, since it’s summer, a lot of the snow has melted and wildflowers have sprung up. You can still see snow in some parts though!
After visiting Myrtle Falls (above), my family hiked the Bench and Snow Lake trails, which winds past a meadow to Bench Lake, then through a forested path to Snow Lake. For most of the time, you can see Mt. Rainier in the distance as in the photo below.
This is Snow Lake! The water is really clear, and you can still see some snow in the lower left of the photo below. Actually, I later found out that there are several Snow Lakes in the region, and I guess they’re all so-named because they have snow all around them in the winter months.
After hiking Snow Lake, we visited Reflection Lake, which is famous for the reflection of Mt Rainier in its waters. However, when we went, it was a bit too windy, and the sun probably wasn’t in the right position, so we didn’t really see a reflection. It was still beautiful though!
I really enjoyed visiting Mt. Rainier National Park :) My only complaint is that I wasn’t prepared for the mosquitos! They’re everywhere, and they’re relentless. Wear long sleeves and don’t forget your bug spray (and your camera)!
