Category: Mt. Rainier

Last Thursday we went for another hike in Mt Rainier National Park.  Although we only caught a brief glimpse of the mountain peak this time,

the Carter Fall section of the Wonderland Trail is still quite beautiful.

Crossing the Nisqually River on a log bridge is always exciting. Even though it is probably as wide as a normal hallway, it never seems that wide when there’s a river rushing below you.

Although the trail was never as steep as the surrounding peaks would suggest,

it was a steady uphill climb as we followed a small creek up the mountain.

The highlight of this section of the Wonderland Trail is Carter Falls, 

but there is a whole series of smaller falls that are also quite delightful and provide natural air-conditioning.

I was too winded to get a shot on the climb up the trail, but since it was an up-and-back trail, not a loop, this shot of Leslie and Paul walking down the trail suggests the steady, uphill incline .

Even though I prefer loop trails where you constantly see new things, I saw things going downhill that I’d missed on the way up the trail, like this huge boulder that diverted the creek.

When you’ve lived in Mt. Rainier’s presence for 77 years like I have, it’s easy to assume you know it as well as you do the back of your hand.  That assumption might even be reaffirmed by taking the same spectacular hike every year for several years in a row.

When we talked about spending the day on Mt. Rainier, I wanted to take our usual hike from Sunrise, but Leslie and Paul wanted to do the Naches Peak Loop Trail on the east side of the mountain, a trail I’ve never taken. Though I still want to repeat the Sunrise trek some time this year, by the end of the day I was glad we had taken a new trail.

In our first sighting from the east side of the mountain, Rainier was almost obscured by massive ramparts

something I had never noticed before.

Nearer the top of the Naches trail, the ramparts disappeared, and Rainier seemed its usual serene self,

but, as we completed the loop and dropped in elevation, those ramparts seemed even more formidable than they had from a distance.

After our hike, we completed the loop around the mountain where I took this picture almost directly south of Rainier

and got an entirely different view of the ridge line.  It turned out that I didn’t really know the mountain quite as well as I thought I did.

If forecasters are right, the mountain will change even more radically with Climate Change.  It’s clear that many of the glaciers are already receding and will continue to do so.  Personally, I hope I’m never around to see Rainier without glaciers.  It would be like seeing Mt. Olympus without its Gods.

Last week’s hike around Naches Peak was magical. Bright sunshine, mid-70 temperatures, and peekaboo looks at Mt Rainier certainly contributed to the magic, but wildflowers in full bloom seemed most magical of all.

Surely these fields

must have inspired the Impressionists.

Who could tire, no matter how steep the trail, when bouquets of lupine and Indian Paintbrush line the trail,

cover meadows, 

vanish into deep forests?

And if one should tire, what better way to refresh the soul than to stop

and become one with such beauty?

After seeing all the flowers at Mt. St. Helens, we decided to go up to Sunrise on Mt. Rainier to see if the flowers were blooming there, too. Besides, I wanted to try out my new Canon SX60HS.

A few years ago I hiked the same route with Leslie and a friend of Ted’s who was younger than I was. I managed to keep up with them on the trail, but ended up scaring myself because my heart was racing at 120 bpm for an hour and a half after we got back to the car. It scared me enough that I made Leslie drive down the mountain. I resolved after that to lose some weight and to train harder because I wasn’t about to give up hiking in the mountains.

I’ve lost 30 pounds since then while managing to increase my strength. I still have problems getting enough oxygen due to some moderate COPD, but my heart and leg muscles can manage the climb without protesting until after I get home. Just the memory of that hike, though, has made me unwilling to carry extra weight, even if it’s a camera. I bought the Canon SX60HS precisely with these kinds of hikes in mind.

Unfortunately, at first the weather wasn’t very cooperative. Clouds obscured the mountain most of the time we were there,

though they made the long uphill stretches easier than normal.

At the top, the camera showed its versatility. This shot was taken at the widest setting.

You can almost see the hiker on the left side of the shot.

Here is a medium range shot centered on the hiker,

and here is an extreme closeup centered on him.

Personally, I was blown away by the detail. I think if he were walking toward the camera I could identify him.

This capture of a Marmot that almost crawled up my leg showed the camera’s versatility. I doubt I could have gotten him in frame with the lenses I normally have mounted on my main camera.

The camera also seems good at taking closeups of flowers like these Avalanche Lilies,

managing to even capture the drops of water.

It even captured the fuzz on this Indian Paintbrush.

It also did a nice job of capturing Rainier as the clouds finally cleared on our descent.

Lest I begin to sound like a â€?”fanboy” of the SX60HS, you really have to search to find out how to shoot HDR. Unfortunately, I hadn’t read far enough to find the setting for HDR on this trip. Next time.

I also wasn’t happy that the only bird I saw on the trip flew off before I could get it in focus, though I’m not quite ready to blame that on the camera’s limits yet. There’s certainly a learning curve with the camera that I haven’t mastered yet. It’s pretty clear that I would never use it as my primary birding camera, but I knew that before I bought it.