Sunrise Area Mt Rainier - Headed East to Another NP

 

Today we checked out of the RV Park and headed to the Northern side of Mt. Rainier.  A pretty drive, with some views of the mountain and the communities surrounding it.

 Came upon this Waterfall, which is center in the picture.

 

We saw many rivers coming off the many glaciers around the Mountain.  All of them look like the water you would see coming out of a cement mixer after it dumped its load and is being washed out.  A very light grey, very dirty looking water.

Unlike yesterday, there was no wait to get into the park.  Traffic was minimal, but with the upper Sunrise area still closed for the season (what is up with that???), it made for a large amount of cars in and around the Sunrise Campground, which is closed for camping, but open for day use and offers some hikes with views of the mountain.  The bottom picture is the entrance area.

 

 

The rest of the pictures above are views that we saw between the Park entrance/exit, and Yakima, where we emptied our tanks at Maverik Gas Station, and then checked out the Bass Pro Shop to see if we wanted to camp in the parking lot.  Rejecting the lot, we went to a few BLM sites, most of which were closed for some reason, but had no Internet.  So we continued on to I-90 where we decided to stay at this rest area.  Now Washington State has an 8 hour limit for staying in your vehicle (there is a sign which says "Try to limit you stay to 2 hours", but the state law says you have 8 hours).  It is nearly 9, there have been no "authorities" who have come by, so we plan to stay until 6 or 7 in the morning and continue on.

Our original plan was to go to Glacier National Park, we have not been there for at least ten years.  But I decided to go on to Yellowstone, and take it a bit easier by having at least two down days were we don't travel much further than to a store or restaurant.  We enjoy Yellowstone because of all the animals you see, the beauty of the park, and weather.  Should be there sometime on Tuesday. 
 

Mt Rainier National Park

 

Of course, the Mountain was partially hidden by clouds!  If that is all we faced today...well...

The RV Park is about an hour's drive from the entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park.  A fairly scenic view, with Alder Lake taking up a bit of it.  

I sensed something was up when the GPS had a mile long RED zone, which means there is slow, very slow, moving traffic...but it did not say why.  Four miles away from the entrance I see this sign that essentially says, "If there is a back-log of cars to here, you have a four hour wait to get into the National Park.  A couple minutes later there is one for 3 miles out...3 hour wait.  I told Marcia I thought we were going to have a problem.  Sure enough, just before the 1 mile out there is a back-up of cars...a ONE HOUR WAIT to get into the park.  What is up with that????

Just before we got to the entrance, we stopped for some fresh cherries...they were good, but not worth an hour wait.  I figured our "waiting" our turn to get into the park took longer than the drive to get to ONE MILE OUT from the park entrance.  

 Well, we got a few picture today, but finding places to pull over to get pictures was hit and miss...with lots of misses.  Very busy park...

The traffic once in the park moved pretty well...but there so many areas where the parking was just impossible...but plenty of parking in the lesser scenic, non-hiking trail areas.

 At top of the Paradise area, it was a MASS of people...some of whom hiked up this trail to Hell...I mean...a possible better view of the mountain and surrounding mountains.  Well, my 70 years old legs, bad knees and all, started hurting just watching them go up and come down.  After taking in the view, and yes, we lucked out with a ADA parking spot close to the Visitor's Center, we headed back down.

 

Surprised to find out that Mt Rainier is taller than Mt. Shasta in Northern California.  However, while Rainier is taller, Shasta actually has a larger base diameter and greater total volume. It has been around 1,000 years since its last eruption.  There are 28 named glaciers on Mt. Rainier, along with other unnamed snowfields.  

"IF" it erupted now, it would take out a large chunk of the communities south of, and perhaps including, Tacoma. 

Found out that the Sunrise area on the other side of the mountain is not open yet...but we can get part way up there, and that is our plan before we head east towards Glacier National Park.