The weather had been pretty good so far, but once we got to Paradise, some clouds started to roll in and covered the top of Mount Rainier. It was still pretty sunny in most places though. We stopped to eat some fresh fruit and cheese that we had gotten from Pike Place Market the day before. The strawberries, raspberries, and peaches were really good. After that, we went to Reflection Lake and walked along a short path beside it. There was still a little snow on the ground, but not as much as when we went last year.
We learned at the Paradise visitor's center that the road to get from Paradise to Sunrise was closed because half of it had been destroyed from all the snow and mudslides after last winter. So we had to backtrack out of the park, go about 15 miles south and come back north on the other side of the road closure. It probably added an hour and a half to the trip, but it was worth it. Troy & I didn't have time to stop at Sunrise before, so I was glad we took the time to get there. It was pretty impressive. It's the highest point in the park that is accessible by car (6,400 ft). There were lots of wildflowers in the fields, including lupine flowers, which are a relative of the bluebonnet (the Texas state flower). Sunrise Lake was really pretty, with all the bluish greenish water. And the clouds parted for a while, allowing us to see to the top of Mount Rainier.
It was a lot of driving and took basically all day. After Sunrise, we drove back to Seattle and ate our favorite pizza we've found here, Pagliacci. We got cheese bread sticks from Mad Pizza too. We had just enough time to go to the Space Needle to see the sunset. The torchlight parade for Seafair also happened to be going on when we were at the top of the Space Needle, and we could hear all the cannon fire from the pirate ship float, which was pretty cool.
It was a very busy day but we got to see a lot of natural beauty.
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1 comments:
Paradise was awesome. It'd be nice to go hiking there, if only it weren't so far away.
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