Mount Rainier Park

If my last entry lacked photos, this one will make up for it with some of the best of the holiday. Mount Rainier National Park in Washington is quite special.

We decided to head to a place called Paradise. Well who wouldn't? The aim was to do one of the hikes over the meadows. This was the end of June. Apparently this time last year yes the area was bursting with wild flowers. But this year - snow. Below is Thibault starting out on what was supposed to be a fairly easy trail.

I aborted about 5 minutes later having watched a lady in front slip over and injure her shoulder. Thibault of course made me feel bad about being such a wuss, and gave me one of those despairing looks that said "Ah well, what I have to suffer going on holiday with an old man."  Later in the day, I apologised again and said I hoped he didn't mind too much at cutting out this area, to which he confessed "No, it was dangerous as fuck." As it was. However pretty.

So we made our way to the Paradise Visitor Centre to enquire about alternative hikes in the area. The German woman at the information desk comforted me by saying the hikes up there were only really accessible with equipment. She pointed us further down the mountain road to the Ohanapecosh Area. So off we drove.

The road here is just gorgeous. Top stop off, which Thibault allowed me out for some photos, is over Reflection Lakes. They are aptly named. Would have been even more photogenic if they had melted a bit more, but even so....

We went off on a hike around the Grove of the Patriarchs, a looped trail through old cedar, hemlock and fir trees

Thence we moved on to a much longer looped trail, the Silver Falls Lop Trail. Spectacular. Even Thibault's spirits were lifted from this one. He admitted better than our original plans for Paradise.
The photos say it all.

The mark of a really good waterfall is when it has its own rainbow.

My best attempt to capture a shot of a red squirrel. Unfortunately my camera focused on the tree in front...

Our last stop of the day before heading on to Kelso was to take in the Narada Falls. A 50m drop.

 Then on to our Guesthouse in Kelso. Actually another good choice with a large room, although it was part of an out of town shopping development.

 We went Mexican for dinner to a chain restaurant called Fiesta Bonita, just across the car park. Bright and colourful with decent food and service. Just the clientele who were rubbish, between small kids and a couple behind us who kept up a constant tirade of swearing in loud conversation.

Thibault looks better over a large Margarita

This was my starter. Frankly I didn't need a main course after this.