This was our second trip to Mt. Rainier but it was even more beautiful this visit than we remembered. The dark side of this mountain in the Cascade Range is that it is considered one of the most dangerous volcanos in the world. If it were to erupt again and melt even a bit of that glacial ice covering the tops of it's 14,000 plus feet it could destroy a very large area around it. I was pleased we didn't learn that until we reached the highest point visitors center as ignorance made the trip up much more enjoyable.
If you have been to Seattle you know that Mount Rainier is an imposing yet beautiful site, especially on a clear day. This is one HUGE mountain!!!
The whole park is filled with wildlife and is so green! The mountain actually creates it's own weather, causing a lot of rain, and that's why it is so lush. The long drive to the top provided many photo stops and hikes to see some of the fabulous water falls that cover the park. Here are just a few.
There are gorgeous sites at every turn and so many beautiful wildflowers.
The glaciers are really an amazing site. It's hard to imagine how much ice there must be to not all melt away on such a warm sunny day.
On the way down we had the good luck to see a black bear in a valley below. We enjoyed watching him graze (they eat most anything) with a couple of other families. One family was from France, and although they spoke very little English, they did manage to give us their email address so we could send them a picture of their very first bear. Apparently there are no bears in France. I told them this made perfect sense to me as I had not seen even one when I was in Paris. They didn't smile but did nod. Along those lines, the man asked me if bears were all over America. I wasn't sure how to answer that one. I smiled and nodded and he seemed happy with that. After forwarding the bear pics we received a very nice thank you email from him that evening. I thought you would enjoy it.
"Thank you very much, I am extremely happy. This is our first bear. I love USA"
These pictures were taken from a long ( and safe ) distance. The top one shows the view from where we were actually standing. The bear is in the picture and is a small black spot in the grass in this photo although we could actually see him quite well.
The other couple we were chatting with while bear watching lived an hour away and seemed especially excited to see this bear although they had seen many before. She called her husband "The Bear Whisperer" because he seems to be able to spot them whenever they drive up the mountain.
At one point the woman and I were standing a bit away from the men. It was then she shared that her husband was terminally ill. They had found out this news five days before. She told me to be happy and enjoy our trip and time together. She said she was so glad that they hadn't waited to do all the things they wanted to do in life. She said this might be her husbands last bear. They weren't much older than we are.
This was the most profound life lesson of our journey.
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