Location: Silver Falls State Park, OR
We woke up in a gorgeous fern grove with huge mossy trees on the eastern side of Mount Rainier. It took us about an hour to drive to Paradise, (aptly named) stopping to see Reflection Lake and other places for photo ops. Every turn of the road gave us stunning views of Mt. Rainier. The roads were engineered to provide the best views. We were lucky to have clear blue skies and actually see the top of the mountain - which doesn't occur very often in this rain forest.
We took a turn thru the Visitor's Center watching a very moving film about Mount Rainier. It really did bring tears to our eyes just how majestic, massive, dominate and extreme this powerful mountain is. It is the most topically prominent mountain in the lower 48 states with an elevation of 14411, an creates its own weather systems. Feeling very inspired we geared up for a strenuous hike that heads towards the summit then veers along a ridge and skirts a glacier. This hike was aptly named the Skyline Trail. It climbs 1700 feet, is a 5.5 mile loop and crosses many snowfields that are really steep. Because of these difficult conditions is took us 4 hours, not bad considering the average time allotted is 4.5 to 5 hours!
Wow!! Best hike of the trip. The entire walk uphill was lined with wildflowers upon wildflowers abundantly displayed among picturesque brooks. You really did feel like Julie Andrews signing at the top of her lungs, "The Hills Are Alive" in the Sound of Music. It could have been the Alps! The walk uphill was so steep that at times it was hard for me to catch my breath, but it was a joy to pause and just take in all the beauty. Once we reached the ridge and began our descent down the other side the contrast was amazing. It was much more barren and covered in ice and snow fields. After working so hard climbing up we were hoping for a bigger payoff on the downhill side. Mmmm...trekking down the steep slippery snow fields was almost as hard as the hike up. Denise finally decided to slide down on her butt part of the way. Hearing her laugh and whoop it up on the way down encouraged me to give it a try. Unfortunately, I wasn't as smart as my buddy and wore shorts so the slide down the hill made for a very cold, ahem...toosh. There is no way these pictures capture the beauty of the wildflowers with the background of the Cascade mountain range. We could see not only the top of Mt. Rainier, but Mount St. Helens and several other peaks in the distance. Notice the big grin on our faces at the top of the ridge!
We knew we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Silver Falls State Park in Oregon, but after working so hard we decided that a nice dinner out was in order. Yum, cedar plank salmon with a nice glass of wine did the trick. Unfortunately, we pulled into the campground at a little after midnight. The camping gods were once again watching out for us. The campground was full but we took an empty reserved space and crashed for the night.
