Mt. Rainier National Park (8-11Jul11)

Back in the beginning of July, we went on a nice family camping trip down to Mount Rainier National Park. What do I mean by family? My husband's whole family--mom, dad, brother, sister and her husband, 3 kiddos and 3 dogs (we left our dogs at home with the sitter since they aren't allowed on trails in the park). They all camped at Ohanapecosh (national park campground) and we camped 6 miles down the road at La Wis Wis (forest service campground) since our coach was too long to fit in the national park. The Alpenlite, henceforth known as Alpy, is 31 feet and the max trailer length for any of the NP campgrounds is 27 feet. Bummer, but not really because we had the place practically to ourselves.

We arrived on Friday, July 8 about an hour before check-in time. The Hatchery Loop, where the RV's stay is sort of far from the other part of the campground and to our delight, there were no other campers at that time. The 40 foot site was not exactly what we were thinking it would be so we parked and took a little walk to find the camp host to see how we were supposed to fit our coach. Curt ended up driving out, turning around and coming in the wrong way so that our door would face the picnic tables and fire pit. The camp host was fine with this. This trip was the first we used our fresh water tank as the Hatchery Loop doesn't have any sort of hook-ups or water. You have to walk (or drive) over to the main part of the campground to get water. No worries though, we were set. Got our camp set up, rolled on into Packwood for a few odds and ends and when we got back, I totally sacked out for more than a few hours.

SATURDAY, JULY 9

It was a chillaxed sort of morning. Got up, coffee, breakfast and got going into the park. I had my trusty "Day Hiking: Mount Rainier National Park Trails" by Dan Nelson with me and had picked some nice short hikes to try out. Our first stop, however, was the MRNP entrance gate at Steven's Canyon to buy our America the Beautiful pass. We then proceeded on about 10 miles to Box Canyon and the first stop of our adventure.

Curt and I on the Box Canyon trail

We crossed the road and checked out Box Canyon and then from that trail, there is a trail that attaches to the Wonderland Trail (the 93 miles trek around the mountain) and takes you back to Nickel Creek. I thought this would be interesting. It's only about a mile back to Nickel Creek and there's also supposed to be a camp shelter there. Also, there isn't much elevation gain on that trail. It was nice and wooded. The trail climbs up a bit and then sort of flattens out and starts on a downward as you get to the creek. We hit snow probably at 3/4 mile in, but it wasn't too terrible. Crossed the creek on the lovely bridge and then up the other side.

Bridge over Nickel Creek

This was where the shelter was supposed to be according to the guide book. We found no shelter, but a snow pile and some bricks that looked out of place in the wilderness. In any case, it was a nice place for some lunch.

Nickel Creek Shelter site?

After lunch we turned around and hiked back out to Box Canyon and checked out the viewing point from the parking lot side. On the way back we stopped at Ohanapecosh to say howdy to the family and visited with them for quite awhile. A group of us, mom and sis's family and I headed out for a hike to Silver Falls.

Silver Falls

This is about a 2 mile loop that heads up through Ohanapecosh hot springs and then on to the falls. It was great and my niece and I were in the lead most of the time. She is quite the little hiker! I see that I have a future partner. By the end of the loop, she had found herself some sticks so that she had hiking poles to match mine and we were to be "matching girls forever!"

SUNDAY, JULY 10

It was a rather early morning, for us anyway, because we wanted to get up to Paradise and back by about 3pm so we had enough time to prepare for Sunday dinner--we had invited the entire clan over to our campground for some chow that night. It was apparently not an early morning for the rest of the tourons because we got to Paradise around 10:30 am and it was not very busy compared to what it became later in the day. We dinked around the new visitor center, watched the movie, checked out the gift shop and ate some lunch. Then, we decided to move the truck down to the old parking lot, there was a 2 hr. time limit in the new one, and attempt some hiking. Now, Paradise was snow covered, but there were some wands.

Wands marking a trail

We originally wanted to try and hike from the old parking lot over to the new, but couldn't find the trail. We ended up on a loop trail and turned around and just walked back over via the sidewalk. We wandered over to the Paradise Lodge to check that out and then back. By this time, it was crowded, getting late and the previous snow travel had made us tired so we opted to take a few pictures there by the visitor center and leave.

Curt and Christina at Paradise

I had a nice nap in the truck on the way back and was ready to start the cooking. Dinner was great and we only had one mishap when my 5 year old nephew bonked his head on the slide-out of our trailer. I'm hoping he learned not to run around it, but we'll see.

MONDAY, JULY 11

Our check-out time wasn't until 2pm so we had a nice leisurely morning packing up. Decided to go back up 410 and over Cayuse Pass to get home and just took our time, stopping a few times here and there to cool down the tranny or pull over to let cars get past us. We had a great trip and really didn't want to leave. Four days was not long enough!

A brief stop on the way home.