Mount Rainier National Park

Last weekend was Father’s Day! Due to flight changes, I was unable to fly home to visit my family, which was disappointing because I haven’t seen my brother, sister-in-law, or niece since before I went to North Carolina. We made the best of the situation by video chatting for awhile on Saturday, though! Hopefully when I come back home, we can all get together and celebrate for real.

After the chat, Cody and I tried a Vietnamese restaurant in Federal Way, called Ox Pho. I had been wanting to get pho since my first week here, but hadn’t done it yet. It was delicious. I got the seafood pho, which had shrimp, octopus, and imitation crab in it. Also, loaded it with bean sprouts, basil, and jalapenos, because that is how you pho.

Sunday, we drove to Mount Rainier National Park! We took the long way to the Paradise side, and I was nervous because it rained off and on the whole way. When we got there, it had pretty much stopped raining. We drove all the way up to the Paradise Ranger Station, and discovered that the path was 100% covered in snow. Neither of us had micro spikes, or proper snow baskets for trekking poles (I don’t even own trekking poles. 😂). So we decided to go lower and find a different path. On our way back down, we saw a black bear! So cool!

We drove down to Narada Falls and hiked from the parking lot to the Falls, then chose to hike to Reflection Lakes. What an adventure. The path started off pretty easy. There were some muddy parts, some snowy patches, but it was pretty much clear. Until we got into the valley part of the hike. We completely lost the trail in the evergreens and deep snow, and discovered a trail buddy named Ann who was hiking in the Park for the first time like us. We all hiked around in the snow trying to find the trail without much luck. I wasn’t able to pull up All Trails to download the map, because there is zero service up there. We were about to give up and turn around, but Cody pulled up Maps and we studied it for a bit, noticing that the trail ran pretty much parallel to the road. We climbed up to the road and followed it to the lake, where we were met with a stunning view of the frozen Reflection Lakes. Even though we couldn’t see the Mountain, it was still breathtaking.

We hung out at Reflection Lakes for a little bit, taking some pictures, and then decided to head back. The way back was pretty much all downhill…my poor knees! But we powered through and made it back just fine. At that point, it was late afternoon and we had a two hour drive, so we decided to head back.

We stopped at the gift shop on our way out, naturally, and picked up some things. As it is Covid season, the gift shop was only allowing a few people in it at a time. We sat outside and rested for awhile, waiting for our turn. It was nice to sit for a little bit. The gift shop had a good variety of things, including some really cool mugs, neat stickers, and tee shirts. We headed back home after that, stopping for gas on the way in Elbe Washington. The Mt. Rainier Railroad Dining Company is there, and you can eat in a rail car, which is cool! We didn’t end up doing that, but I got some pictures!