Skip to main content

Day 120 - Mount Rainier

My morning began at 7am with a music festival parking lot wake up followed by a long drive south through incredibly beatiful scenary to Mount Rainier. I stopped by popular Lake Chelan, but it was too touristy and crowded for my liking. The lake just outside of Chelan was just as pretty and this viewpoint serene. 

After six hours of driving I arrived at Mount Rainier. The viewpoint from White Pass was awe-inspiring. Rainier glowed proudly in the perfectly clear sky. 

Tired after a bit restless and short sleeping night, I found a quiet, shaded camping spot just outside the park, and napped until 530pm. Then I drove towards Paradise, the valley below the southern face of Rainier, known for its wildflowers. The road up to Paradise. 

I hiked a few short trails, enjoying the dusk light views of Rainier and her many glaciers, meadows and streams. 

The valley and Paradise Inn below. The famous wildflowers were almost all gone by this mid-July time due to the mountain receiving half of average snowfall. 

There was a special astronomy program starting at 945pm tonight.  They had a half dozen telescopes set up and promised great views of Saturn and the Milky Way and other star clusters. I found a lovey spot for a sunset and waited for the lights to go down. 

The view of Saturn was awesome: you could clearly see the bright rings circling the bright star. But she looked like a child's drawing from so far away. It wasn't until one of the volunteer astronomers hooked his digital SLR camera to his top-notch telescope that things got sciencerific. He took four separate two-minute exposures of the Lagoon nebula, then stitched them together and adjusted the lighting and color right there. 

After an hour, we had produced this image of the Lagoon Nebula, a baby star cluster being born! 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 51 - Canyonlands Needles Pt 3

A deep connection to the nature surrounding you comes from the solitude of solo travel, but sometimes it is nice to have a companion!  I ran into David, a retired telecom exec from Canada a few days ago on the Syncline Loop trail at Canyonlands Island in the Sky. Then I ran into him again halfway through my Chesler Park hike two days ago, then again later in the hike, finishing the last two miles together.  David hiked his favorite trail, the Peekaboo trail yesterday, and said I could join him, but my heart was set on confluence trail, so we hiked separately. We did share a campsite though and exchanged travel stories. David was 55 and had retired at 50 from a high-level international job with Nortel and was now traveling full-time. We instantly bonded over our solo travel style. He outclassed me by leagues. He had trekked one month in Nepal, then another month in India, then some months in Asia. He had hiked and skied and adventured all over the western U.S.  and Canada....

Day 40 Escalante Hole-in-the-Rock Road

I woke up late following a lovely slumber in a REAL bed-- such a luxury. I stayed in bed reading my maps and guidebooks, trying to put a plan together for the next months travels. I decided I would spend two more weeks in Utah and add on two weeks in western Colorado instead of spending all four weeks in Utah-- I was starting to tire of the desert and Colorado seemed like a good mix of backcountry beauty and civilization proper.  The last must do in Escalante was Coyote Gulch, so I read and reread the route description in my guidebook and went to the visitor center to get my permit. I was going to do a loop down Hurricane Wash to Coyote Gulch to the Escalante River and then up Crack-in-the-Wall overland back to my car. Permit in hand, I lingered by the Outfitters wifi emailing and blogging and then drove out Hole-in-the-rock road forty miles to my trailhead. The road was dirt but well graded in most parts. A high-clearance vehicle was recommended for the last five miles but my Dodg...

Days 89 and 90 - Waterton

I started my journey north to Canada today. My plan was to head to Waterton Lakes, just north of Glacier, then to Calgary, then the Canadian Rockies parks of Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Glacier and a few others, then to Vancouver and finally to Seattle, all over the next several weeks. But first I needed the Internet!  I drove south out of Many Glacier to a place I remembered having cell reception.  I did some emailing and calling back home, did some research for my Canada trip and watched the final three episodes of Game of Thrones--wow, the final two episodes were sensational. This rainy, dreary day was perfect for such activities. I then drove into Canada late in the evening and to a campground set in the cloudy mountains at Waterton.  The weather cleared a bit the next day and I was able to do some hiking around this scenic alpine lakes district.  Waterton Lakes district from a high hill called Bear's Hump: The chipmunks at Bear's Bump were very interested in the conten...