It rained steadily all night, which definitely added to the mystique of the rain forest where we were camped. When we woke up it was cool, but not cold and we were shrouded in a misty fog. Our first destination was Grove of the Patriarchs. This was a beautiful hike through the forest that featured the largest trees of the park, showcasing Douglas Fir, Red Cedar, Western Hemlock and Red Alder. We hiked along a crystal clear creek created from glacier runoff that ran through an old growth forest. A cable suspension bridge took us over the creek and into the large grove of trees. We were impressed with how the younger trees grew out of the fallen trees, how everything was covered in moss, and how lush everything was! Mt. Rainier gets over 90” of rain a year which explains all the above. We spent the rest of the morning driving through the park stopping to see several stunning waterfalls and lakes. Unfortunately, there was a thick fog and steady drizzle so the peak of Mt. Rainier wasn’t visible. After spending some time at the Visitor’s Center (a very impressive one too!), we walked over to the lodge and enjoyed a great lunch. Buffalo burgers for the boys and artichoke-red pepper soup for me – yum. After lunch we took a wonderful hike along the Avalanche Lily trail. We had hoped to hook up with the Nisqually trail, but took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up doing the Glacier View and Deadhorse Creek trails. The purple, pink, blue, yellow, white and red wildflowers were spectacular! We also thoroughly enjoyed the deer that we encountered along the trail. (See today’s pic). We made our way to the western entrance of the park and eventually headed to Puyallup. Josh has a job interview tomorrow morning and we had planned on staying at an RV park close by. The picture of Mt. Rainier on the website and the glowing write-up without pictures of the RV park should have tipped us off. After a quick drive by a gravel parking lot packed with run down and sad looking trailers we decided to come up with a plan B. We eventually settled on this state park, about 45 minutes away. Gotta love state parks – they are always consistently better than private RV parks! The drive to Kanasket-Palmer State Park was gorgeous – dairy cows grazing on green pastures dotted with red barns opened up to a panoramic view of a tree covered mountain range. Wow! Tomorrow after Josh’s late morning interview we head toward northern Washington and plan to hook up with Denise with her “new” Eurovan. Should be fun!
