NP #9 Rainier - Day 2 - August 10, 2014

Day 2:  August 10, 2014: Everyone was up bright and early the next morning.  After a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, sausage and coffee (all in the room), we headed into the park at 7:30, through the Nisqually entrance (SW corner of the park).

Our first stop was a few miles in where we stopped to hike back to Carter Falls.   

It was an unplanned stop and was a 1.1 mile hike back but I don’t think we made it all the way.  After crossing a log bridge, which was a little unnerving because 6-year-old Grant could have slipped right off the side, we hiked along a creek and saw lots of little falls but I think we turned around prematurely.   

Despite probably not seeing the grand finale, we had a great time.  The weather was quite cool and the entire hike was completely tree covered (with the exception of the very beginning).  Part of the trail back was on the Wonderland Trail, a trail I’d like to take in its entirety sometime in the future.  I am guessing it’s a 90-mile trail but it looks spectacular. (I think we probably went a total of 1.5 miles roundtrip).

After the Carter Falls trail, we drove past the Paradise area, the Ohanapecosh area, and up north to the Sunrise Visitor Center for our main attraction of the day – the Sourdough Ridge Trail.  We started from the Visitor Center parking lot, elevation 6,400 ft. and walked straight up a hill, that frankly, took my breath away.  The air was thin and the elevation change was pretty steep.  We hiked over to Frozen Lake, which was spectacular, then went, questionably legally, off the trail and onto a snow patch where we just had no choice but to eat some snow. 

Then rather than circling back to the Visitor Center, we detoured over to Shadow Lake where we put down a tarp and had a picnic of turkey summer sausage, cheese sticks, crackers, cherries and apples.  It was absolutely beautiful and absolutely delicious.   

We put our feet into the lake for a little bit then headed back towards the Visitor Center.  I think that the entire trail was a little over 4 mi and the kids were amazing – complete troopers.  It was quite hot by the time we got back.  We walked straight over to the snack bar and got Gatorade and soft drinks, then went to the next door Visitor Center and bought the obligatory hat pins and magnets, and got all of our passbooks stamped.  

Around 2:00 we left the Visitor Center and headed back south towards the Ohanapecosh area but not before we had to pull off to the side of the road so that Grant could drop a duce on the side of the road – a Bomersbach trip wouldn’t be complete without one side-of-the-road #2 bathroom break by Grant.  In the Ohanapecosh area, we hiked back to Silver Falls by the shortest means possible but once we got down there, we hiked on the rocks up the falls a little bit and drank some water from the falls.  

It was amazing but very hot – luckily very shaded but still, surprisingly hot.  The hike back to the car was straight uphill and the total hike was probably 1.2 mi. Once again the kids were amazing.  They raced back up the hill as if we hadn’t been on a single hike that day.

Heading west back towards the Nisqually entrance, we made a quick stop at the Box Canyon which was a very narrow, but completely straight drop (180 feet) down to a raging river.  Grant asked is they had tanascoops (actually meant telescopes – cute).

A few miles farther west we made one last stop at Christine Falls – very beautiful, then left the park around 6:00 with the kids yelling, screaming, sassing, and otherwise being awful.   

When we told the kids we were going straight to dinner, Grant got pissed and said, “But I haven’t gotten to be in the cabin all day!”  Really?  We passed the Gateway Inn and drove a few more miles west, stopping at the Copper Creek Inn for what should have been a quick dinner.  Our waitress was a B- at best but the food was good.  We all got burgers, except Grant who got a PB&J that he didn’t like and spent most of dinner waiting in the bathroom line due to a continuation of a bought of diarrhea. 

The kids were beat.  We got back to our cabin a little after 7:00 and because we drew numbers at dinner, I got to take my shower first, then G, then Ry then Nick.  Ry and Nick got ice from the mini mart and then the three of them practiced their underarm farting ability while I sat and wrote this all down. 

It’s now 8:45 pm and I am exhausted and going to bed.  We have to be up early tomorrow to hit the Space Needle. 

But National Park #9 is in the books and what a park it was.  Spectacular.  And the first one we’ve been to where I wish we had another day.