I had no problem getting a campsite. Apparently the weekends are pretty crowded, but with the recent very rainy weather it hasn't been too bad during the week. I set up camp, then headed to Paradise. (For those of you who haven't been there, Paradise is the location of the main visitor center in the park, located at 5400' of elevation on Mt. Rainier).
The hiking trails are not accessible, and its way too early for the spring flowers - not what I expected at all. There are still eleven feet of snow on the ground at Paradise, and the snow line is still down to 4000'.
I spent some time at the visitor center, then headed back to Longmire to do the Rampart Ridge hike. Very nice, but very much uphill (probably between 1500 and 2000' of elevation gain), through old growth forest. There was a really nice viewpoint on top.
Animals on Thursday - I saw birds, chipmunks, deer, and one bear. The bear was on the side of the road. The deer were on the side of the road and in the middle of the hiking trail.
The campground was in a beautiful location. Just a short walk across the road from the river, and a beautiful view of the mountain. I spent quite a bit of time there after dinner - just sitting, soaking in the view, and watching the effect of the diminishing sunlight on the peak. You could actually see Mount Rainier from inside the campground, but the view from the river was really unrestricted.
An older man pulled into the campground Thursday night with an RV the size of a bus! He drew quite a crowd, since the rest of us were wondering where he was going to get stuck. He was alone, and none of us could figure out why he needed something that large - I guess he wanted all of the comforts of home with him. We were afraid he was going to run his generator all night, but luckily he didn't.
All quiet, went to sleep to the sound of the river.
Friday Today was somewhat of a lazy day. I did a couple of hikes, each shorter than yesterday's, but the total mileage was about the same. I drove over to the east side of the park, but only as far as Box Canyon. I was thinking of going over to Sunrise, but that would have meant at least 4 hours in the car. Since I will probably be driving for 5 hours tomorrow to get up to Bellingham, I decided against the drive today. It's amazing to see the difference on the east side of the park. It's much drier - the mountain and the west side get a lot more moisture.
I spend some time walking in the snow up at Paradise. Definitely not what I expected to see in July. The ranger said that this year's snowfall was the 3rd highest on record. They're figuring that if the weather continues to be good that it will take another three to four weeks for the Paradise meadows to be clear of snow.
There don't seem to be any flat trails around here - I have a feeling that my legs will protest getting back on the bike after two days of hiking abuse!
