Thursday, June 13
After leaving our rest area without any problems for overstaying the 8-hr time period, we continued north and east to Mt Rainier National Park. This is our fourth time here and we have been fortunate to see the top of the mountain all four times so far. The mountain is so large (tallest in the Pacific Northwest) that it creates its own weather system and is often shrouded in the clouds that blow in from the west off the Pacific. This is also the reason there is so much snow on the mountain year round. The last time we were here the mountain was in full bloom with flowers of all colors everywhere and it was a true paradise on earth (in fact, the visitor center is located in the town of Paradise so named for that reason). This time, however, all the trails were still covered with snow. It seems that we are either two weeks earlier than usual or they had a lot of snow out West this year because this seems to be a common occurrence for us on this trip (Yosemite, Lassen, Mt St Helen’s, Mt Rainier). Still beautiful but in a different way.
We hiked a short, snow packed trail to where a waterfall was last time but due to dangerous off trail conditions could not see the falls this year. So after lunch, we continued on our way. The choices were: Olympic NP (rain forecast tomorrow), Seattle (not much interest in city life), North Cascades NP (afraid snow would be on the trails), or this quaint Bavarian style town of Leavenworth. I think you can tell which we chose. We arrived at dinner time so many stores were closed, but we had a nice pork schnitzel, soft pretzel with fondue dip, and soft drink at the Rhein Haus before boondocking in the Wenatchee national forest about 5 mi outside of town. Bonus: port-o-potty at the trailhead. We will explore more of Leavenworth tomorrow.
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