Majestic Mount Rainier - Part 1

WOW. Mount Rainier National Park was absolutely AMAZING. I used to always wonder why there was a national park for just one mountain but now I see why. If you've never been, I highly suggest you grab your camera (and maybe your tent or RV) and go experience it for yourself next summer.

We hitched up our trailer and were on our way in early September and arrived late on a Sunday night. We were thinking the White River campground would have been cleared out for the week.  Well, we were wrong. Very wrong.  Almost every site was occupied and then the ones that weren't full were too small for us to fit in.  (We have a 25 foot trailer which didn't help matters!) At almost dusk, we found a "pull-through" that we barely fit in on a hill. The next morning, we moved to a vacant volunteer host site. Now, this campsite was opposite to our previous one and was basically the best spot in the campground.

Mt. Rainier from Kent/Auburn Valley (it looked much much closer in person).

Entering the park

I wanted to see a bear (when we were in the car)....but I didn't. The last time I saw one was at Yellowstone in '10

After setting up camp at our 2nd and final site, we headed down to the White River to get our first close view of Mount Rainier on the trip. I was basically in awe .....

Happy campers

Mount Rainier & me

: )

Later that afternoon, we showed Lillian the view because she had missed our first night and view as shown above because she had been on a special birthday overnight surprise with Eeott & Papa.

 This is how the sun was hitting the mountain

Mom standing on the porch of an old ranger patrol cabin