Mt. Rainier - Washington State - continued!

All day Friday was spent again on and around Mt. Rainier. We stayed just outside the Mt. Rainier National Park at the Alta Cyrstal Resort. Our first stop was a short hike to the grove of the Patriarchs. On a little island of a river, these 1000+ year old trees live. These trees have survived hundreds of years of forest fires because of the moat protection of the river surrounding the island. To get across to the island, we had to cross a cable bridge. Then we hiked what was reported as the "longer yet easier" trail to the Silver waterfalls. It was a good thing we took the "easy" hike, because we found the path to be steep and tough. The photo below is us before the Silver waterfall.


Our next stop was to go to Paradise (Paradise point to be exact, the best view of Mt. Rainier in the park). However, the road to paradise was blocked by a landslide from our side of the park. It is depressing to be told you can not go to paradise! However, in a non-spiritual context, we found we could get to Paradise by driving a long way around out side of the National Park. So we did! Just to find out that Paradise was literally in the clouds. About two miles from the visitor's center, we drove into the cloudy fog with below minimum visibility (we could not see anything!). Visibility was about 15 feet! However, Darlene and Ron made good use of the gift shops. With the approach of evening, we finally left Mt. Rainier National Park and drove to Seattle so that Ron could attend the meeting of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine on Saturday and Sunday.