The Lonely Mountain. . .

Yes, I know.  It is terribly dorky of me - but honestly - I live in a house full of hobbit-ites.  The lonely mountain is essentially in our back yard, but you may know it by another name:  Mt. Rainier.  We are so lucky, we see the mountain almost daily, and never get tired of it!  So, one weekend, when we were considering something to do, in the early afternoon, we decided to take a drive, and ended up down by Paradise, on the south side of the mountain.  

The road to Paradise Valley is UH-MAZ-ING!  It was such a wonderful drive, with so much roadside scenery, especially once you are in the park.  There are roadside waterfalls, parking, hikes, and huge riverbeds - all there, waiting for you to explore.

The highlight of our whole trip, though, most definetly was actually getting up to Paradise Valley.  We were so excited to see that just by sheer luck, we arrived at a pretty perfect time - the mountain was in bloom!  The whole trail up the hill was simply covered in wildflowers, and it was just beautiful!

It took us about 2 hours from Puyallup to get to Paradise.  The drive was easy, and nice, and we were so late in the afternoon (around 3) that all the traffic was in the opposite direction, AND there was plenty of parking everywhere!  Downside?  We did NOT bring any clothes with sleeves with us, and I got around 15 or so bug bites in the couple of hours that we were in the park. 

Have you been to a National Park lately?  Which one?  Sound off - let me hear your experiences!

Stay tuned for Trip # 2 - The Dark Side of the Moon.   Coming soon to a screen near you :)