Mt. Rainier, the trail, the views

Mt. Rainier was so wonderfully beautiful. The views of sharp peaks in the distance. The snowy summit of Rainier itself (which the local indian natives call Tahoma and want the name changed back to that!).

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From Paradise visitor's center at about 5500 ft. altitude, the walking paths go up to about 6100 ft. altitude, which is above treeline (which means climactically, trees can't grow up there, just like in the arctic tundra region).

So instead of trees, we have wonderful alpine wildflowers. Growth is very slow up there, and takes years to re-grow damaged land, so it's really important to stay on the trail and not "bush whack" .

I was happy to hike with Tina and her friends. Tina is one of our strong young players (about 5D strength), and will be going to Stanford this year (2005) .

The views were so beautiful on the trail, all I could do was keep taking pictures.

Yes, that's snow and ice glaciers clearly visible from the trail. You can't hike up to that part without a guide, however, which takes two days and $1500 .

On the way down, we saw a deer munching in the flowers. It was quite tame, pretty much ignoring us as it dined.