Day Tripping on Mount Rainier

A couple of folks from the lab were heading down to Mount Rainier on Saturday to do a bit of hiking; I'd mentioned I enjoyed the outdoors so they invited me along. Mount Rainier at 14,411ft (4239m) is the highest summit of the Cascade Mountain Range and in fact the state of Washington, as well as being an active volcano. Needless to say its quite a challenge to climb the glaciers, snow fields and rock bands so we weren't going to summit it in just a day! Instead we settled for hiking a few trails at slightly lower altitudes, but with stunning views nonetheless. Matthew and Jing-Ni from the lab were the ones who invited me and we were driven down by Dr Takeshi, an immunologist from a different lab at the research institute and our notional guide for the day (in that he'd been there before!). Despite being visible from Downtown it takes three hours to drive to Mount Rainier from Seattle so it required an early start. Our first destination was an area called 'Sunrise' on the East side of the mountain; at 6400ft this is the highest point that you can drive to.

 Matthew, Jing-Ni and me with the summit in the background.
Despite being so high it was surprisingly warm up there, probably about 24C and not a cloud in the sky! I felt rather over-packed having put in a couple of extra jumpers and a spare baselayer expecting it to be rather cold (as I'm sure those who climbed Ben Nevis on King's On Tour will understand). We decided on hiking up through the alpine meadows along a ridge to the 'frozen lake' for a picnic lunch.

 

Takeshi, Matthew and Jing-Ni tackling the snow bank

The Not-so-frozen Lake provided a great spot to perch on a few rocks to share a picnic of noodles (Takeshi's secret recipe, and chop sticks provided!)
We headed down and set off to drive around to the South side of the mountain to the most popular "Paradise" area. On the way we stopped by the 'Reflection Lake':

We arrived at Paradise mid afternoon and set off up the Skyline trail to view the glaciers. We were soon above the snow line, and loving it! Cue photos:

The stunning glacier cascading off the summit.

^Arty shot, couldn't resist.

Other than the glaciers, we could see Mount St. Helens of 1980 " deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States" fame (thank you Wikipedia):

More wanton artiness: this guy proceeded to put on a fedora so I guess he's a bit of a poser...

 

The ubiquitous Japanese school group really enjoyed the snow:

This quote, on the steps leading up to the trail at Paradise, really sums up Mount Rainier as a place and should serve as a great reminder of a brilliant day out!

NB. Well done for getting this far
NB. NB. As ever click any of the photos if you want to see them a bit larger.
P.S. (or is that NB.?) I know I don't have to stack "NB."s but its ironic or something...