Paradise, Mt Rainier

We saved the best for last. There is a reason they call this part of the park Paradise. It is a well known hike where thousands come to take in its beauty. We are all looking a little rough as we hadn't taken a shower in 4 days, but who is looking at us? There is so much to see, I found myself often saying, "This is so amazing."  Mt Rainier from this tail is so huge, massive, majestic. If you only make it once to Rainier, this is the trail I recommend.

From one of the look outs, you can see Adams and Mt Saint Helen's.  It is such an awesome experience.  We did a little over 4 miles this day, and there were no complaints. 

Gotta take the time to play in the snow.

Love the waterfall off to the left of the picture on the mountain.  The glaciers were huge and mesmerizing.


The fields of flowers made it feel like you were in a story book. Like these 3 puffy cream colored flowers below.  We all called them mini Truffala trees from the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax.  Oh to be a honey bee in these fields. Pure heaven.

 See those cute little kids on the trail.  Yep, those are mine, =)

The trail ended with this beautiful waterfall.  Perfect way to end such a glorious experience.  I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to have experienced this with the ones I love the most. And even though I was sore, dirty, and tired, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Looking forward to doing it all over again. Maybe in five years or so. Rowan will be 5 and I will have teenagers. Time sure does fly when your having fun. I'm definitely enjoying these precious moments.

Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver falls Mt. Rainier

This day we decided to give our kids a little break, hehee. We hiked two different trails for a total of 4.3 miles. Definitely a must see at Rainer. The Grove of the Patriarchs is a island of really big trees that the park has worked hard to preserve. All along the trail were places to stop and explore. We all enjoyed it.

This was one of the big trees that fell in the 70's and you can climb into the trunk from the root end making this awesome photo prop. The kids thought it was super cool. I thought the photo turned out awesome.

The park did an awesome job of making a wood bridge/path through the trees.

 I looked at Rowan who was squealing with glee and saw a little inch worm crawling across his head. Super cute. He also is sporting some mosquito bites. I have to say, the bugs were not that bad. In the 4 nights we were there we only put bug spray on once. This was one of those times we should have done it back at the trail head. Poor little guy. He survived though.

Weston the mighty explorer

Silver Falls. There are a series of little falls to see before you reach the big one. Just beautiful.

Hike to Jug Lake and Sunrise

 Our first hiking trip definitely told me a couple of things about me and my kids. One, I am out of shape, and two, my kids are excellent hikers. We hiked 5 miles that day. It was a good trail, but about midway it got super steep and rocky.  Had a couple of complaints from the Alli and Wes, but Tim lead the pack with eagerness. So proud of all of them. Even Rowan wanted out of the pack to do his share of hiking.

 Once we got to Jug lake, I striped the kids down to their undies and threw their sweaty little bodies in the lake. There was a small handful of horseback riders that had brought up swimming pool air mattresses to float around on. It was kinda odd to see, but super cool.

No swim diaper here.

 The next day we drove into Rainier park and hiked around Sunrise . Part of the hike was on the famous Wonderland Trail. It was truly beautiful. Again, the kids hiked about 5 miles with Tim leading the pack. We loved the area. Wild flowers galore, streams, lakes, waterfalls, and...

 a herd of mountain goats grazing.

We had a blast with the patches of snow we ran into. Nothing like a snowball fight in August!

This is just one of the many beautiful vallies you'll run across on the trail. The fields of wild flowers smelled amazing.

Soda Springs Campground

 Family camping. It can be both challenging and fun when you have four children all under the age of 10. The word clean takes on a whole different meaning as you become "one" with the dirt.

James and I knew that camping was on the list of things to do this summer, so we both decided on a four night stay by Mt. Rainier.  What we didn't plan was how popular it was going to be in August.  There where so many people there.  They where packed into campsites fifteen feet  away from their neighbor in a 200+ capacity campground. I love car camping, but that is just ridiculous and not relaxing.  I do not like hearing the conversations of my neighboring campers around me. So, we went a couple miles out of Rainier National Park and found a wonderful campsite with no neighbors at all. It had a shallow river right by it, picnic table, out houses, and someone even left a bouquet of flower on the table for us to enjoy. It was perfect and free!

 Rowan on his first camping trip with the whole family.

 James is such a good cook. We ate well on this trip. This is the kids eating whole wheat pancakes hot off the grill with huge fresh blueberries inside.  I packed some of my plum jam I made this summer to add as a topping with tree ripened peaches. Can't get better then that!

 Everyday the kids were catching frogs. There were tons of them, and the kids loved to play with them.

 James made a rock dam in the river to create this little swimming hole. It wasn't warm, but the river was shallow enough to make it tolerable. Nothing like swimming in your underwear.

 Grubby little boy. Happy too!

This is why they call it Soda Springs.  I guess its naturally carbonated water that flows from the ground. We could hear it bubbling all night, which was kinda cool. There was a couple hikers that passed by one day and told us that in the 1930's there use to be a shack up the road that used to bottle and sell it. The kids and I tasted it and it tasted like iron spritzer to me. If you look at the picture above with Wes on the rock, you can see the orange stain this water makes on the side of the bank. Fun and fascinating to see. I recommend this campsite to all the families out there who plan on visiting Rainier, but don't want to pay to stay at a campsite. Nothing beats free and private!