Mount Ranier National Park , Washington

Mount Ranier is another one of the active volcanoes in Washington. It stands 14, 410 feet in height. Mount Ranier was established in 1899 as a National Park.

There are 26 glaciers that cap the mountain. The mountain is close to the western edge of the North American tetonic plate. The mountain we see today is relatively young in geologic terms: it formed about 500,000 years ago. Like Mount St. Helens and other Cascase volcanoes, Mount Ranier has the potential to erupt again at some unknown time.




We drove inside the park to the visitors center in Paradise. We saw a nice film about the park there and attempted to hike to a waterfall. But as you can see in the pictures below the trails were still snowed in. We attempted to find it but all we found was the information sign buried under about 5 feet of snow.

Later we hiked a trail that took us over this suspension bridge. I don't like walking on these things but this one wasn't too bad.

We drove along the highway inside the park to Reflections Lakes. There are 2-3 lakes together here. The picture below is from the largest one. This is a picture that is taken by everyone who comes here and I am sure you have seen it on TV or a card somewhere. This is an infamous spot to take a picture, so it is very, very popular.

Later we hiked another trail that took us to this small waterfall. Still very pretty though.

On one of the trails this huge tree had fallen and I did my best to upright it, but I just couldn't do it !

Further down the lane, Jeff tried to upright one in his own fashion, but that didn't work either!

We hiked over a bridge to look 180 feet below at this beautiful gorge. The scenery getting there was just wonderful.

When we look back at pictures we have taken sometimes it seems just too good to be true.

Looking over the edge of the bridge or walking over to the edge of the gorge itself reveals the water flowing rapidly below and also just how deep this gorge really is.

See ya down the road !