An Alpine Garden
Mt. Rainier is right in my backyard. I see it every sunny morning when I bike to work along the Green River Trail. It’s off in the distance when I drive down into Kent from I-5. When I fly back home from family visits to Wisconsin, there she is to the South. Rainier is considered an active volcano, and being relatively close to a metropolitan area, it’s often considered one of the most dangerous. However, scientists say it probably won’t erupt in this lifetime and when it does, we’ll have plenty of warning. So have no fear, and go visit Mt. Rainier National Park, the place where John Muir found “the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain top wanderings.”
My first visit to Rainier actually came with my parents when I lived in Portland, OR. We got there late at night (no waiting line) and stayed in the lodge at Longmire. Besides being a National Park village, Longmire is also one of my favorite TV shows. The main character’s beer of choice is Rainier.
With my parents we encountered cloudy weather, and only rarely and briefly did we get a view of the mountain. Still, we did plenty of hiking. On the Skyline Trail we got to see the some of the famous glaciers. On the way back down, we encountered a group of Indian travelers, dismayed at the cloudy weather, who just wanted “to see some snow and then turn back around.” After Skyline we took a trail down the mountain that went through groves of huge Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar trees.
No dogs allowed
I’ve also been to Mt. Rainier several times with my wife Rita, and usually with our dog Frog. National Parks do not allow dogs on trails, so we have to enjoy the views from the parking lot. In Mt. Rainier though, a parking lot is not a bad place to be. Paradise and Sunrise have exceptional views of the big white mountain, no matter where you are. At Sunrise, it is fun just to sit by the visitor center and watch climbers through the monocular.
A lesser visited location is Mowich Lake, which requires a long drive down a bumpy gravel road. We took Frog there for a picnic lunch. Afterwards, we took turns walking to the lake and trying our hand at trout fishing. Neither of us got bites, though I did get a nice hike along a short section of the Wonderland Trail. The entire Wonderland Trail is 93 miles and circles around the mountain.
On two occasions we’ve been to Mt. Rainier and encountered snow fall. One time in April, when friends visited us, it started to fall heavily as we drove up the mountain. Wisely, we turned back down and enjoyed the lower reaches along a fast-moving stream. On another occasion, Rita and I stayed in Longmire, and the road up to Paradise was closed due to snow. We hiked the Trail of the Shadows, which loops around the springs that James Longmire turned into a health spa in the early days of the park.
Dege Peak
The last time I visited was with my friend Beans and his partner Gwen, who were spending some time in the Seattle area. We went to the mountain without Frog, so we actually got to do a hike. Before the hike though, Beans downed a chili cheese dog, out of fear that he would “pass out on the trail”.
We selected Dege Peak, and it did not disappoint. It was a hot, but crystal-clear day. To the southwest, the grand view of Mt. Rainier filled our field of view. To the southeast, we got the occasional view of the nearly as gigantic Mt. Adams. To the northwest, we saw deep into the North Cascades. Beans, so captivated by it all, called his mother to fill her in on the details.
We summited Dege Peak, at 7000 feet, where we were greeted with a swarm of noisy flies. For what reason they hung out on that rocky outpost, I do not know. In any case, we took our photos and turned to head back down. On the way back, I told Beans and Gwen that while I loved Mt. Rainier, I rarely saw any wildlife up there. Then, we rounded a bend and came across a large mountain goat, one of my favorites.
Also, on the ride down the mountain, we saw a herd of elk off the side of the road. Reality is stranger than fiction. Iwao Matsushita, a Japanese photographer who fell in love with Mt. Rainier and returned to it often, called it the “Holy Mountain”. I am sure I will make the pilgrimage there many more times while I live in its shadow.
