Mount Rainier, April 27, 2003

  

 

 

But first...  Saturday, April 26

 

Starbucks at Greenwood, above Green Lake...

 

     

 

 

 

Hiromi's neighborhood, above Green Lake...

       

 

 

 

Redmond... while taking the railroad shot below, a Warren Zevon song was in my mind... "well I lay my head on the railroad track, waitin' on the Double E... but the train don't run by here no more, poor poor pitiful me"...

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, April 27

 

One of the first Spring-like days of the season... driving by Green Lake in Seattle...

 

 

 

East from Seattle on the 520 Floating Bridge, over Portage Bay and Lake Washington to Bellevue. The western face of the Cascade Mountains glistened in the afternoon sunshine. While taking late afternoon sustenance at Crossroads, in Bellevue, we decided to drive east toward the Cascades...

 

       

 

 

About 20 miles east of the Seattle area we turned to the south in the hope of getting a good view of Mt. Rainier at sunset. We stopped at a stream where salmon spawn and we passed a peacock near the Green River Gorge...

 

 

As dusk approached, the great dormant volcano came into good view as we neared Enumclaw. Mount Rainier is about 40 miles away in these shots...

 

       

 

 

 

 

At Enumclaw we decided to push on the rest of the way to Mount Rainier, even though darkness was fast approaching. As we reached Rainier's base the last traces of sunlight were giving way to starlight, and the ice clad peaks were barely visible. The National Park seemed all but deserted as we looped around the mountain from the east to the south. Above the timber line, snow ploughs had created ice walls ten feet deep at the sides of the road. We came to a turn-out and stopped to take a look around... and on this perfectly clear and cold night the starry sky was stunning...

 

       

 

www.onroute.com/destinations/washington/mtrainiernp.html

 

 

We proceeded on around the south side of the mountain...

and a pleasant ride back up to Seattle followed...