Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier is a massive stratovolcano and one of Washington's most iconic landmarks. Standing at over 14,000 feet, it is the tallest mountain in the Cascade Range and the fifth tallest mountain in the continental United States.

In the Seattle area, it's just called "The Mountain" and can be seen from the city on clear days.

Mount Rainier

Rainier is known for its year-round snowfields, 25 major glaciers, and stunning alpine scenery. It is considered to be one of the most potentially dangerous volcanoes in the country due to its high potential for catastrophic eruptions and lahars (volcanic mudflows) that could affect nearby populated areas, including the Seattle–Tacoma metropolitan region.

The mountain is the centerpiece of Mount Rainier National Park, which was established in 1899 as the nation's 4th national park, and which protects vast wilderness areas, ancient forests, subalpine meadows filled with wildflowers, and diverse wildlife.

the mountain view from the lodge

We arrived at Mount Rainier National Park in early afternoon. We were going to be staying inside the park at the National Park Inn, the official Department of the Interior lodge inside the park's base camp.

The area is known as Longmire, a historic district in the park dating back to the late 19th century when it was established as a mineral springs and health resort town. With the advent of the automobile, Longmire prospered by offering a filling station and eventually established itself as the park's first headquarters.

Today, Longmire Historical District is home to the park's only year-round lodging, a park museum, and a handful of scenic trails at the base of the mountain.

Mt. Rainier Lodge

After checking in at the lodge and dropping our bags off in our rooms, we took a drive up the park road to the Paradise Visitor's Center, the furthest up the mountain that we were able to drive at this time of year.

the upper ranger station at Paradise

Paradise is located at 5,400 above sea level, and the difference in scenery between it and the lodge couldn't be further apart.

Down at the foot of the mountain it was cool, damp, and rainy. Up here, just a 20-minute drive from the base, it was cold, frosty, and icy-clear.

inside the Jackson Visitor Center 

We got our national park passports stamped, perused the gift shop, then made our way back down the mountain to a rest area where we had a picnic lunch, albeit beset upon by Canadian Jays and Stellar's Jays who surrounded us, waiting until we left to see what we had dropped.

incredible alpine scenery

Even though it was late spring, it seemed that Mount Rainier was going to be more difficult to trek than we had expected. 

a view of the mountain

Many of the trailheads were still closed, and if our icy overland experience at Olympic National Park was anything to go by, it was going to be near impossible to do much hiking on the mountain.

the remnants of an ancient glacier

We stayed in that evening, dining at the restaurant inside the lodge. I ordered the bison meatloaf, which was served with mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus, and gravy. I wanted to try something unique which was iconic to the park lodge, and bison seemed appropriate.

We turned in early that evening for a good night's sleep.

Bison meatloaf

The next morning dawned cold, dark, icy, and grey.

a very foggy morning

After a quick breakfast of hotel coffee and cereal bars, we all met up in the lobby to pile back inside the rental car for another drive up to the Paradise Visitor's Center.

the mountain's ranger station

We quickly realized that it was going to be far, far too cold, wet, and icy for us to hike with the gear that we had.

Pinky and me at the park headquarters

We drove back down the mountain to the base camp and decided to take a hike along the Trail of the Shadows.

Interpretive signs along the trail tell the story and history of the Trail of the Shadows and its surrounding area.

fallen logs in the rainforest

The Trail of the Shadows is a loop trail located at Longmire which passes through lush wetlands, verdant rainforests, and geothermal springs. It's one of the area's most historically and culturally significant trails.

a prairie, forest, and mountain landscape at the park

Long before American settlers arrived, the Longmire area, including what is now the Trail of the Shadows, was part of the traditional homeland of the Cowlitz and Nisqually peoples. These Indigenous communities used the area seasonally for hunting, gathering, and spiritual practices.

exploring the rainforest

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a handful of hot spring resorts were established along what is now the Trail of the Shadows, capitalizing on the supposed medicinal properties of the mineral-rich waters. 

These rustic wellness retreats attracted visitors seeking relief and rejuvenation in nature, drawn by the promise of healing in the beautiful green foothills of Mount Rainier. 

Iron Mike, one of the most well-known springs, is still visible today, its iron-rich waters bubbling up and leaving behind a vivid rust-colored deposit that stands as a visible reminder of the area's early history as a therapeutic destination. I'm not really sure I'd like to bathe in this water though... no matter how good the supposed benefits are!

"Iron Mike"

That evening we left the park and drove a few minutes down the road towards the Wildberry Restaurant, a small Nepalese restaurant owned and operated by Mr. Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, a mountain climbing legend.

Mr. Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa's climbing gear

On May 26, 2003, Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Nepalese base camp in just 10 hours, 56 minutes, and 46 seconds via the Southeast Ridge route. This remarkable feat broke the previous world record and still stands more than two decades later to this day. The corner of his restaurant is a mini museum dedicated to the gear and history of his epic and historic ascent.

an oxygen tank from Everest's slope

Mr. Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa has summitted Everest more than ten times, Rainier nearly 100 times, and has also climbed Mt. Vinson in Antarctica, Cho Oyu (the world's sixth-highest mountain), and many other of the world's most famous peaks.

He personally delivered our food to our table but was very shy and humble when we asked him about his incredible world records. He just smiled and nodded and asked us how our meals were.

They were, for the record, excellent!

My mom and my wife ordered the kukhura thali, which was a platter served with boneless chicken curry cooked in tomato-based gravy and spices and served with bhatt rice, daal, and vegetables.

Kukhura (Chicken) Thali

My dad and I ordered the Sherpa stew, which was a traditional hearty Sherpa dish served in a big bowl and made with green beans, carrots, red potatoes, celery, and beef cooked in warm flavorful broth.

It was my very first time to ever try Nepalese food, and it just inspired me even more to someday visit Nepal, one of my bucket list destinations.

Himalayan Sherpa Stew

When we returned to the lodge, a fire was roaring in the fireplace, and we sat for a while to enjoy the warmth with a game of Exploding Kittens before going back up to our rooms.

evening at the lodge

Mount Rainier is one of the most beautiful national parks I've been to! In fact, the entire Pacific Northwest so far has been really stunning. I've loved the cool weather, lush vegetation, and wildlife that we've seen - especially the birds. I ended up adding more than 20 new species to my life list over the course of the week!

morning coffee at the lodge

After two nights at Mount Rainier, it was time to drive on towards our next destination.

Originally, we had planned to visit North Cascades National Park up on the Canadian border. The country's second least-visited park, North Cascades is rugged, rough, and remote. It would have been very beautiful, but with the weather even at Olympic and Rainier still being cold and snowy, we realized that it just wasn't going to be possible to reach North Cascades. Some of the roads were still closed for the season, we might be required to use tire chains (not allowed on a rental car anyway), and the park headquarters wasn't even going to be staffed at this time of year! Not to mention the risks from grizzlies who might just be waking up from their winter hibernation!

My dad and I had a look at the map and decided that we should make a last-minute change to our plan, so after leaving Olympic National Park, we began driving down south towards Oregon, another new state for me to visit.

Puget Sound Express

We drove into Port Townsend, population 10,000, the county seat and only incorporated city in Jefferson County, Washington, the next morning after a quick road trip breakfast at McDonald's.

Port Townsend is nicknamed the "City of Dreams" because there was a time back around its founding in the 1850s when it had hoped to become the biggest and most important harbor city on the west coast. That clearly didn't pan out.

Today it's a sleepy little seaside village popular as a tourist destination.

Port Townsend is home to a paper mill which makes it smell unfortunately of sulfur, something that you notice immediately when driving into town! Luckily, the smell is limited to an area around the mill, and the rest of Port Townsend is really lovely.

We were not here for the paper mill, however.

We had driven into Port Townsend from Port Angeles because my dad had got us all tickets for a whale watching cruise.

We boarded the Chilkat Express catamaran and met the crew, which included the captain and two guides who would help us spot and learn about the wildlife that we were expected to encounter.

Of course, the company cannot actually guarantee what you're going to see on any given day, so every trip is a surprise.

We settled into our seats and cruised out into Puget Sound.

I had to look up what a "sound" was. I've heard about Puget Sound so many times but had never really questioned what the term meant. Turns out, a sound is a body of water that connects two larger bodies of water, often forming a narrow sea channel or ocean inlet between land masses

It was the 40th anniversary of the Puget Sound Express, and they were selling special mugs to celebrate. If you bought one of their mugs, you could get unlimited free hot drinks (coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or cider) for life! 

I'm not sure when I'll be back in Washington or if I'll bother to travel with my ceramic mug, but I made sure to get my money's worth on the trip by getting several refills of tea, and it's fun to have a mug as a souvenir of our cruise.

After about half an hour of sailing through the sound, we arrived at Deception Pass State Park, a breathtaking strait that separates Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island in Washington State. Known for its swirling currents and dramatic cliffs, the pass connects Skagit Bay to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, offering stunning views of rugged coastlines and dense forests. 

The iconic Deception Pass Bridge, standing 180 feet above the water, spans the strait, providing a striking architectural feature against the natural beauty of the area. 

The pass was given its name by explorer Captain George Vancouver in 1792, as a joke after his crew first mistakenly identified Whidbey Island was a peninsula.

We had seen a few unique seabirds on the trip over, but here is where we spotted our first marine mammals. A large family of harbor seals basked lazily on the rocks along the shore.

Nearly hunted to extinction by the 1960s (the fishing lobby had fought hard to kill off all of their competition), harbor seals have made a remarkable comeback in the past several decades thanks in large part to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 which helped their numbers rebound in the Pacific Northwest.

We left Deception Pass, and then... we saw them!

A small pod of three orcas were breaching just off of the coast, and we cruised over to watch them as they surfaced, dove, and occasionally shot jets of water into the air.

There had been no guarantee what we might see on our cruise, of course, but if I had to choose just one marine creature to spot, an orca would have been my ultimate wish.

Seeing them in the wild was incredible.

Orcas, or "killer whales", are technically not whales at all, but are in fact dolphins. They are the largest member of the dolphin family, and are known for their intelligence, social behavior, and advanced echolocation ability.

Heading back to port, we encountered a group of sea lions hanging out on a buoy. They were honking and yelling at one another, and it was really hilarious to watch them try to push each other off of the buoy with their big lumbering bodies trying to jockey for a spot in the sun.

As we pulled into port, Pinky spotted a pair of sea otters basking in the sun on the sand near the docks.

I didn't get a very good picture, but it was really fun to see them in real life. I had been wanting to spot one since coming to Washington.

In my opinion, this cruise was the highlight of our trip to Washington!

We had dinner at a small restaurant called 929 Woodfire Grill just a few blocks from our rented house in Port Angeles. We had eaten there the night before as well, and the food was so good that we went back again!

I've really been enjoying how much seafood I've gotten to eat during my visit to Washington State.

Olympic National Park

The next day in Washington dawned bright and clear, a massive departure from the stereotypically cold and rainy mornings we had experienced in the state thus far.

We drove out of Port Ludlow early in the morning, stopping in Port Angeles, the gateway to Olympic National Park, for brunch. We ate at a little cafe in town called Chestnut Cottage, before driving on to the visitor's center.

Hurricane Ridge

Olympic National Park, encompassing nearly a million acres of wilderness in Washington's northwest, is one of the country's most ecologically diverse parks.

Originally designated as Mount Olympus National Monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1909, Olympic officially became the nation's 23rd national park in 1938, and has since been recognized as both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.

We picked up a map at the visitor's center and added the park stamps to our national park passports, then got back in the car to drive up into the mountains. As we drove higher up the winding road, the air cleared and thinned. As we broke through the thick cloud cover, jagged snowcapped peaks and blankets of evergreen trees emerged against the bright blue sky.

We had arrived at Hurricane Ridge, a mountainous region of the park popular for hiking, skiing, and snowboarding. At 6,772 ft above sea level, the Hurricane Ridge parking lot has an elevation higher than that of Denver, Colorado, the "Mile-High City".

It was springtime, and weather on the ground was in the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit, but it was still hovering around freezing up at Hurricane Ridge, and snow from the previous winter still rose around 10 feet above the plowed parking lot.

Even the snow was piled up high above our heads, we had come here to hike, and that's what we were going to do! We put on our boots, grabbed our water packs and trekking poles, and set off to the nearby trailhead.

Trekking through the snow wasn't easy, especially as it was partially melted. With every step we took, our feet sunk down through the soft, powdery snow, making each step a trudge.

We walked for an admirable distance through the snow, but eventually, we had to turn around and head back to the car.

It was crazy to see the top of pine trees sticking out of the snow nearby, and it was a reminder that this trail, which was over ten feet below us as we walked, was actually paved... not that we could see it!

It would be fascinating to visit Hurricane Ridge in the summertime when the snow is gone. I'd love to see the difference. 

Lake Angeles Trail

Back on the ground, we had a picnic lunch then headed on to the Lake Angeles Trailhead, which offered a totally different ecological experience than Hurricane Ridge had.

Down here, the park was home to North America's largest temperate rainforest. It was cool, damp, fecund, verdant, and very rich in life. 

It would be hard to imagine two more different landscapes than upper and lower Olympic National Park, though the two areas are only twenty minutes apart by car.

Olympic National Park is home to the Hoh Rainforest, the largest temperate rainforest in the United States. The Hoh Rainforest visitor's center was unfortunately closed when we visited, but we still got to explore this really unique ecosystem.

Temperate rainforests like Hoh are characterized by their mild temperatures, lush vegetation, humidity, and dense old-growth canopy.

As we walked along the trail, we admired all of the huge logs, paper-soft from decades of rot and covered in mushrooms and lichen, all around us. The cool, damp rainforest has got to have some of the healthiest natural compost in the world.

We walked down the trail for a little way, but it suddenly became too quiet and started to feel a little spooky. We were the only ones out on the trail, and a warning sign at the trailhead indicating a recent mountain lion encounter had put us a bit on edge. After a while, we turned around and headed back to the car.

I'm fine encountering a black bear in the wild, but mountain lions are among the last things I'd like to meet in the woods.

Port Angeles

That afternoon, after leaving the park, we drove into Port Angeles to explore the town.

Port Angeles is a charming little city located on the Olympic Peninsula with a rich history, dating back to its founding in 1791, when Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza named the harbor Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Port of Our Lady of the Angels).

Today, it's known as a port of disembarkation for cruises and as the gateway to various outdoor activities, mostly centering around Olympic National Park.

We hung out at the pier for a while. We spent the afternoon browsing gift shops and art galleries and sat down for a cup of coffee while looking out across the water.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and we couldn't have gotten luckier with the weather for our first full day at the parks.