Mount Rainier 2008

[mollyringle]

We've just returned from a couple days on beautiful Mount Rainier. Here's a mini photo travelogue. The pictures are big, but as such you could use them for wallpaper.

Okay, I don't know why, but when you click on these, it might first say "You don't have access," blah blah blah. But if you copy and paste the link, it should work. Why? I wish I knew.

The mountain herself, from the Paradise area.

The view from our room at Paradise Inn, elevation 5,400 feet. None too shabby. That Inn, by the way, closes to most guests in early October, and in mid-winter is buried in snow up to its third or fourth story.

Some of the famed gorgeous wildflowers. Predominantly lupines here.

The boys at the highest point of our hike, which was probably a little over 6,000 feet up. (Mount Rainier is about 14,000 feet high, for perspective.)

A glimpse of the turquoise waters of Snow Lake.

Speaking of snow...oops, there appears to be a snowbank over the trail. That's leftover snow from winter, not early autumn snow, I'm pretty sure. Incidentally, I'm the one wearing a small child on my back, and the other lady is an unknown fellow hiker.

The Tatoosh range at Rainier's feet.

Comments

[gillen.livejournal.com]

I've often dropped by the Paradise Inn for dinner, but I've never gotten a chance to stay there.

I've never been able to get a cell signal on the mountain. Do the Inn have internet access of any kind? It sounds horribly touristy to ask and somehow insensitive of the natural beauty of Rainier, but for business reasons I can't really go an entire day without net access, even on vacation.

Also, how far in advance did you make your reservations?

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

The Inn doesn't even have room phones, just a bank of phones near the lobby, and I didn't see any evidence of internet. I sort of doubt there's any easy way to get that on the mountain, as a guest. Presumably the hotels do have it somehow, but possibly not. I phoned in the reservation; don't think there was an online option.

And we only made the reservation a week before going, but probably it only worked because school had started by then, and we chose weeknights rather than weekends. I imagine it fills up faster in July and August.

[astroman-rich.livejournal.com]

Very nice! I bet you had a great time!

Regarding the permission errors - webshots is presumably not allowing access to the images when the HTTP Referer is from LiveJournal. You can just put them on your website to eliminate that problem. ;-)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I thought of the website, but didn't want to load a bunch of 1 to 2 MB photos onto you, with possibly hundreds of hits each. :) Besides, on Webshots it contributes more to people's wallpaper needs, which I'm happy to do...

[lalael.livejournal.com]

Beautiful shots!
Also, if you wait for the pop-up snap shot thing and click on the link through there that also works.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Ah good, glad it worked one way or another for you.

[gavinworld.livejournal.com]

Very pretty pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The scenery did all the work, really. :)

[modmerseygirl.livejournal.com]

I can't see the pictures! Wah!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hrmph, well, if copying and pasting links doesn't work, just go straight to the album page on Webshots:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/566769474akRUEn

Good luck! :)

[modmerseygirl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you! What beautiful scenery! :-)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad it worked.

[dirae.livejournal.com]

REDRUM! The Paradise Inn is swanky and totally reminds me of the Timberline Lodge used as the facade of the Stanley Hotel in Kubrick's "The Shining".

I really need to get out that way...

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hee! Remark I made on the drive to Rainier: "Hope we don't get snowed in while we're there. Because, well, we've all seen The Shining..."

It does look a lot like Timberline, inside and out, though Paradise preceded Timberline by twenty years or so. The insides are historic and grand, but not in the elegant way that the interior of the Shining's hotel was. More in a "big polished logs and twigs" kind of way. We loved it, and may have to make a point of searching out more such national park inns in our area.

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

That settles it - when I come back to North America from Europe, I'm moving to the West Coast. Very beautiful.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hurray! We do have some unfairly gorgeous areas. I guess that accounts, at least partially, for the unfairly high cost of living in places like Seattle... but I figure it's worth it.

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

I am considering grad school in Vancouver, so we'll see what I can do. I've never been out West. It is time I went! (but Europe first)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Vancouver is quite cool, from what I remember. We hardly ever get up there--keep meaning to. Europe does have us beat on cool historic architecture, though.

[elycia.livejournal.com]

GORGEOUS--and how BIG your little guy is getting! Look at those long legs! Does he like getting out in nature?

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! He does have crazy long legs--he's about three feet tall already. His weight is only just beginning to catch up to his height.

He loves being outside. Even rain doesn't faze him--he likes to splash in puddles. True Northwestern boy. :)

Beautiful

[thomas-a-kempis.livejournal.com]

Nice job, as usual, Lemonlye.

Thank You.

+

Re: Beautiful

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The scenery did most of the work.