Mount Rainer, Washington State

Hey Everyone,

Sorry we haven’t written much, yesterday night we stayed in a rest area parking lot, and obviously there wasn’t internet! Yesterday we saw Mount Rainer, and it was so beautiful, let me tell you! After leaving our rest area around noon we drove for about 45 minutes to Mount Rainer. Now, we were a bit disheartend after driving  45 minutes through the rain and finding out that part of the road was closed in the park. We had gone to bed in the rain, listened to the rain on the roof of the RV all morning while we did school while Dad worked and drove through the rain.  To make matters worse, it was also cold, yes, a cold  50 degrees for us Georgia folks. We drove to the first Visitor Center in the park, which was quite small, picked up Daniel and Anna’s Junior Ranger booklets and headed out.  As we were driving through the park, the weather got a bit better.  As we were looking up into the sky, we saw it.  Mount Rainer. It was so beautiful, even with all fog. It’s hard to describe! The peak of the mountain is totally covered with snow, below the snow-covered peak are paths where glaciers cut through the hardened lava. We learned that Mount Rainer is actually a dormant volcano, meaning that it could erupt any time.  After seeing some breathtaking views of the mountain, we went to the Paradise Visitor Center, watched a movie about the park, went to a Ranger Talk and Daniel and Anna got their 10th Junior Ranger badges (they have gotten their Junior Ranger badges at every NP that we have been to!) mom and dad decided to get Daniel and Anna each a Junior Ranger vest.  They are so excited about those vests!! Here are some pictures:

Mount Rainer, before the clouds cleared!

After they mostly cleared.

Junior Ranger Daniel and Junior Ranger Anna