Washington: How City Folk Go Hiking

      I loved the idea that Mount Rainer was a volcano.  And I was intent on being ON a Volcano when we went to Seattle.  I had done a little internet research, but hadn’t found much about Mount Rainer park, hiking etc.  Even though, I figured it was one of those places we would drive to find an information booth, map of trails, entrance, helpful ranger, SOMETHING.

     But no. At least it makes for a slightly better story when I’m wrong about these things.

     The road to and through Rainer was AMAZING.  The two lane road twists around the edge of the mountain, which is covered in tall evergreens.  There are some spots to pull off the road for pictures.  I usually don’t take advantage of these, but we would have fallen off the edge if we had kept gawking while driving.  At one point I yelled at him, “Look at that! It’s so beautiful! No, not you- eyes on the road!” 

     After some pictures we drove on and the road continued to flatter ground.  We found an empty ski resort (it was August), but I had no idea how to get myself on this volcano.

    Eventually, with no other options we found a small parking area on the side of the road where a couple of other cars were parked.  This was our best bet at this point so we parked and started on the small trail.  It was cute in the beginning, with a wooden bridge over a small creek, but then the trail just snaked back and forth up the side of a hill (mountain?).  By the way we were wearing shorts, sandals, I had my purse, and no water let alone any other type of gear.  Half way up the hill we ran into a father and daughter hiking.  They had about half of REI with them.  We asked them if this trail led anywhere and they said they were going to camp at Crystal Lake for a few days.  They told us we still had about 1-2 hours of hiking before we reached that area.  That wasn't happening for us, so disappointed, we headed back down to our car.

Yeah Right

                Even though I didn’t reach a summit, lake...anything, I still like to be able to say I was on a volcano!  Also, I just signed us up for an REI class- Preparing for the Unexpected- Outdoor Safety Basics.