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We were admittedly multi-tasking needing to get some
shopping done and but also needing the enjoyment of a late summer’s day at Paradise on
Mt. Rainier too. So many of our guests had already gone...Finally, our turn!!
Whittaker’s Mountaineering http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/ has become a “must stop” when passing through Ashford at the entrance to Mt. Rainier for wool tops to wear as layers over a wicking T-shirt (my new favorites: http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/brands/smartwool/nts-mid-250-zip-t-womens and http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/brands/mountain-hardwear/wicked-lite-ls-t-womens)on the mountain and great children’s gifts are there too.
Whittaker’s Mountaineering http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/ has become a “must stop” when passing through Ashford at the entrance to Mt. Rainier for wool tops to wear as layers over a wicking T-shirt (my new favorites: http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/brands/smartwool/nts-mid-250-zip-t-womens and http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/brands/mountain-hardwear/wicked-lite-ls-t-womens)on the mountain and great children’s gifts are there too.
If you’re into climbing, the guides
will get you there. The energy and excitement is palpable where climbers either
return from summiting Mt. Rainier or prepare to depart. Kids are all over the
climbing rock wall. Picnic tables in the sunshine fuel mountaineers with
burgers, pizza, and beer.
There is much to see and do along the way: Cougar Rock
Campground, Longmire where we walked in the Fall years ago and saw more
mushroom varieties than we knew existed, the exalted Christine Falls, Comet Falls
with a great trail and rushing water like a falling star at the end, and the "crowning jewel" of
Narada Falls where we have fed Clark’s Nutcrackers by hand and stood in the
mist of thunderous water crashing into the valley below. So much of Nature makes me feel very small....
Once into the National Park after a series of hairpin curves
and long after cell reception deemed us “unplugged” we were fortunate
to find one of the two remaining parking spaces at 3 p.m. at Paradise.
Otherwise a shuttle is provided.
An acrid note hung in the air mixed with late afternoon, sun-drenched sweetness from wildflower stragglers like asters, pearly everlasting, lupine, and some which bloom late and are worth coming to see specifically.
As we began to walk up the mountain on paved trails, every language and accent met our ears and children raced along with their families. For those who had walked enough for their little legs and were cranky, we shared the sighting of a deer with two fawns to distract them. In the past, we’ve seen a fox family every year as we drove to the mountain.
An acrid note hung in the air mixed with late afternoon, sun-drenched sweetness from wildflower stragglers like asters, pearly everlasting, lupine, and some which bloom late and are worth coming to see specifically.
As we began to walk up the mountain on paved trails, every language and accent met our ears and children raced along with their families. For those who had walked enough for their little legs and were cranky, we shared the sighting of a deer with two fawns to distract them. In the past, we’ve seen a fox family every year as we drove to the mountain.
While Europe has its castles and great gardens, America has
National Parks and Lodges. Paradise Lodge, at 5400 ft., was built in 1916 from
a stand of burned Alaska Cedar that had stood as ghost trees for 30 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Inn_(Washington).
It was based on the great Lodges of the Catskills and Adirondacks. Most of the architects worked around the US so there was little variation on the Rustic National Park Lodge theme.
The park ranger told a story in the Lodge that really fascinated me. Some of us (okay, I admit it, I identified completely….) need continual challenges and must always be building and creating. Stephen Mather’s boredom and restlessness paid off as a gift to the World: “Stephen Mather was the first director of the National Park Service. He used his wealth and political connections to take the national park idea in important new directions.
The park ranger told a story in the Lodge that really fascinated me. Some of us (okay, I admit it, I identified completely….) need continual challenges and must always be building and creating. Stephen Mather’s boredom and restlessness paid off as a gift to the World: “Stephen Mather was the first director of the National Park Service. He used his wealth and political connections to take the national park idea in important new directions.
Born in California to a family with deep, patrician roots in
New England, Mather graduated from the University of California at Berkeley,
worked as a reporter for the New York Sun, and then served as sales manager for
the Pacific Coast Borax Company, where he demonstrated his special genius for
promotion.
He branded the product as 20 Mule Team Borax and inventively
created so much publicity that sales skyrocketed. Mather then helped start a
competing borax company and soon became rich beyond belief. But by 1914, at age
47, the self-made millionaire was restless for a new challenge.
Mather counted as one of the highlights of his life meeting
the legendary John Muir on
a hike in Sequoia
National Park in 1912. When he visited Sequoia and Yosemite in
the summer of 1914, Mather was disgusted by the poor condition of the parks. He
wrote a letter of complaint to his college friend,
Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane, who invited Mather to come to
Washington and do something about it himself. Mather accepted the challenge. As
assistant to Lane in charge of the parks, he began a crusade to mold a
haphazard collection of national parks into a cohesive system and to create a
federal agency solely devoted to them: the National Park Service….
Upon Mather's death, the Park Service erected bronze plaques
in every park with the words: "There will never come an end to the good
that he has done." http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/people/nps/mather/ While his work might seem too governmentally regulated to some, the upgraded experience to the National Parks which marked Mather's contribution provided my childhood with rich
memories of existing inside of wild, rugged nature in Yosemite and Sequoia
where trees thousands of years old put life into perspective in their
noble way. In my 20’s when life expanded to my own family and children, the
National Parks were always a place to “get my peace back” and we passed this legacy
to our own children as many we walked with up the Mountain were giving to
theirs. It made me happy to see it.
Adjacent to Mt. Rainier is the Gifford Pinchot National
Forest. “The Gifford Pinchot National Forest is one of the oldest National
Forests in the United States. Included as part of the Mount Rainier Forest
Reserve in 1897, this area was set aside as the Columbia National Forest in
1908. It was renamed the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 1949….Gifford
Pinchot, an active conservationist, was appointed first Chief of the Forest
Service. He played a key role in developing the early principles of
environmental awareness. Pinchot's philosophy is made clear in his farsighted
statement that the forests should be managed for "..the greatest good of
the greatest number in the long run." http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/giffordpinchot/about-forest
The Park Ranger went on to tell us how much damage the
forest and meadows had suffered in years past while these early managers
determined how best to handle increasing amounts of people visiting the area.
The terrain is as fragile as arctic tundra. In one meadow which used to be a
golf course, it took 80 years to recover its original condition once the
golf course was abandoned. Campers used to light ancient trees on fire
just to watch them burn all night…
Evidently there are few places in the World one can drive right to the alpine area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_line where the trees are sparse due to extreme conditions without hiking in. The endurance of the Alpines are particularly precious to me. Their usual spire-shapes accommodate to contortion under the weight of heavy snow. They are tough and persevering and remind us how strong we are too if need be. Surrounded by fragile and delicate flowers which live under snow and ice much of the year, the Alpine meadows are profound in their simplicity, power, and beauty.
Evidently there are few places in the World one can drive right to the alpine area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_line where the trees are sparse due to extreme conditions without hiking in. The endurance of the Alpines are particularly precious to me. Their usual spire-shapes accommodate to contortion under the weight of heavy snow. They are tough and persevering and remind us how strong we are too if need be. Surrounded by fragile and delicate flowers which live under snow and ice much of the year, the Alpine meadows are profound in their simplicity, power, and beauty.
In the distance, glacier water rushes down the mountain
dropping rapidly forming the Nisqually River at 3820 ft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisqually_River The fresh, mineralized water is distinct in
its milky appearance. It flows across several county lines 81 miles and is the
territorial center of the Nisqually Tribe who share its name.
Despite picking a lot of huckleberries (the ones on the
lower branches are the sweetest) we are hungry after the stimulation of
high-mountain air and so we stop at Alexander’s Country Inn passing through
their gift shop to sit by the trout pond. We enjoy the absorbing activity of
fish jumping, insects visible in the lowering sunlight in gyrating swarms over
the greenish water overhung by weeping willow trees. Swallows fly low, scooping
them up and dragonflies lazily make their way around the edges- one landing on
my leg as I ate! (Yes, I 'emoted' quite loudly despite the other diners there who quickly empathized...)
Alexander’s has resident deer and one mama enjoyed apples knocked off the tree by the chef with a very long stick taped one to the other, sharing them with her two fawns. He said she had been a fawn just last year and now she is three. We have eaten many times at Alexander’s and the food is consistently good but a little expensive. We even enjoyed blackberry pie and ice cream, celebrating the end of summer- an unusual treat for us. Eclectic food made by the Sherpa’s wives is at Wild Berry- Yak Burger is on the menu and a good selection for vegetarians. Copper Creek is always busy as we near the exit to the National Park.
Alexander’s has resident deer and one mama enjoyed apples knocked off the tree by the chef with a very long stick taped one to the other, sharing them with her two fawns. He said she had been a fawn just last year and now she is three. We have eaten many times at Alexander’s and the food is consistently good but a little expensive. We even enjoyed blackberry pie and ice cream, celebrating the end of summer- an unusual treat for us. Eclectic food made by the Sherpa’s wives is at Wild Berry- Yak Burger is on the menu and a good selection for vegetarians. Copper Creek is always busy as we near the exit to the National Park.
Near Morton where our Optometry Clinic is, the phone service
returns and we hear the buzz of voice mail notification. There’s something
about stopping- unplugging- and returning to how it used to be before wireless
became an obsession and an addiction (again, okay- I admit it (: ) Returning to the ways of childhood, immersing
in nature, losing ourselves in the moment, breathing deeply of pure mountain
air and really smelling each layer of scent, feasting our eyes on magnificent
beauty, pristine water, and climbing mountains both evocative of Middle Earth terrain where Dragons and Sorcerers might live and yet terrifying in their
implication (Mt. Rainier is a volcano…) brings wholeness and balance to life in
2013. I’ll never stop needing to be near the innate commanding majesty of mountains to “get my peace back”. Mt.
Rainier and the Tatoosh Range http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatoosh_Range
are so phenomenal and I hope you see
them if you never have. They change us like all travel does. Make the trek. You won't ever regret it...
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