Mount Rainier National Park, Washington Cougar Rock CG 9/30 - 10/04 2020 Travel Tour

                                          From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

                                                            Tim and Linda Bunyan

From Kennewick, we head toward Mount Ranier National Park on Stevens Canyon Road (Wonderland Trail) to enter the Longmire area at the Nisqually Entrance of the east side.  

The Highway is cut through the mountains, this wall is built 

to hold the mountain off the highway.

From the west ridge of Paradise Basin at White Pass Ski area is the most popular hiking route via Camp Muir at 1,000 feet and ascents the Ingraham Glacier to the summit at Ingraham Flats (11,000 feet).

Entrance to Mount Ranier National Park

We've reservations at Cougar Rock Campground.  We are happy to have a campsite as this stop was not on our original plan for the 2020 Travel Tour.   It has become a climactic end for 2020....our Grand Finale!!!

Breathtaking Mount Ranier is within view at almost every aspect of the National Park !!!

We explore sections of the 93-mile hiking trail appropriately named The Wonderland Trail.  The scenery is covered in trees.  After four months of looking at rocks, it is welcome for the change of scenery along Steven Canyon Road.

The Nisqually Glacier flows from the summit of Mount Rainer.  Its rock-strewn terminus is visible just above the left valley wall.  The debris-strewn path and exposed rock of the upper valley wall, and the meltwater area are evident.

Mount Ranier is as captivating a visual ........as a sunset; a scene one never weary.

The Paradise River runs clear, not milky, as it originates from snowfields, not debris from glaciers.

We hike to the magical Narada Falls located a short distance from our camp area.

159' horsetail fall with multiple channels down the rock face.

The visitor center in the Paradise area rests on a number of breathtaking trails with panoramic views.  The skyline trail loop and Myrtle Falls and golden gate ridge trail are short hikes approx 3 miles roundtrip.

Paradise Ranger Station: Dial 911 for Emergency.

Early 1900 when the auto was introduced to the National Parks (Paradise Visitor Center then).

Paradise Visitor Center is covid closed; however, restrooms and gift shops open with Ranger to answer questions and offer trail maps. 

Alta Vista Trail is not so difficult to do.  Very pretty sights there

Views from the center are stunning and all-around clear.

Perfect place to see mount rainier and it is a bright sunny day.

These steps are the entrance from the Visitor Center to many trails: Skyline trail, Myrtle Falls, Golden Gate, and Panorama Trail.

Fathers and families and there is Tim on a walking trail near the Paradise Visitor Center

Sites along the world-famous and glorious trails!

Located a short 2 miles from our Cougar Rock Campground is one of the starting points of the Wonderland Trail.

Resting at the campground to confer with Woodstock and the map to plan tomorrow.

We visit the historic Longmire District along the Trail of the Shadow.  The Village is designed to blend with the natural setting where the meadow meets the forest in Nisqually River Valley.  James Longmire opened a mineral springs resort in the 1880s.

The rustic style Longmire Service Station serviced the arriving visitors in autos in the early 1900s.  Essential services fuel pumps and a covered bay to the store access.  

Douglas fir tree begins to grow 1293.  For many thousands of years, native people have used this wood as a source of light and heat.

Longmire Historic District is a visitor services center in Washington State Mount Rainer National Park.  The area is in the Nisqually River valley at an elevation of 2700 feet surrounded by old-growth douglas fir, western red cedar, and western hemlock

Longmire Administration Building built in 1922 of cedar logs and glacier boulders.  The guiding principle of park development promoted by Stephen T. Mather, first director of the National Park Service to design buildings that are not only attractive to look upon, but also appear to belong to, and be part of, their settings.

Food Cache for hikers with instructions to package food in a plastic container to keep out rodents.  A printed label must be on the container.  The hiker may return, their stated date and permit number 

to claim their stored cache.

The Administration Building serves as a Wilderness Information Center.

Stream gaging station is part of a national network for obtaining water resources information.  Recording water level and rate of flow used for flood forecasting, hydrologic and geologic hazard alerting.

Longmire Wooden Truss Suspension Bridge is different from others we've seen on our travels.  Built in the early 1920s it is a combination of timber trusses and steel cable.  Despite its heavy structure, it still moves as we cross it in our truck.  

It does not lead to anywhere except......  

The former headquarters district of the park includes four structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places.   

The largest concentration of National Park Service Rustic-style structures in the park.

The Longmire Meadows area and the park concession and administration facilities.

Beyond is a gravel park service road and a community building and Valor Memorial honoring employees and volunteers who lost their lives saving others in the National Park. 

"The most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings." - John Muir, conservationist, 1889

On the forested slopes of Mount Rainier, this cozy seasonal hotel is set in a 1916 lodge.  It is covid-closed but a delight to walk around the exterior.

The forest to the meadow hiking trail.

This Longmire trail leads through the peacefulness of the old-growth forest of the river valleys and the high subalpine meadows on the flanks of Mount Rainier.

Fallen trees remain on the ground for hundreds of years protecting the soil from erosion.  

We stop for a cocktail at the southwest corner of Mt. Rainier National Park at the National Park Inn.  Lodging is covid closed; however, the are a half dozen front porch seating available with ample room for us to take a break to view the ever-present Mount Ranier.

Mount Rainer is gorgeous  A must visit when visiting the Seattle area.