If I had to subtitle this blog post, I’d probably say: “Astonishingly timely.” Because in real life a pile of poop just hit a fan, and having two nights away with no cell phone reception to process everything was just what the doctor would’ve ordered.
But hey, instead of getting into all that, let’s go all social media-style and I’ll show you a bunch of smiling, happy pictures from our two-night stay at Ohanapecosh on Mt. Rainier.
In addition to me and Benji, my sister Colleen and her husband Jordan flew up from LA for this trip, and Dad joined us. We arrived on Tuesday midday and spent Tuesday and Wednesday night, leaving on Thursday morning.
Now, without further ado, cue the photos:
Before getting to the camp, we stopped at Sunrise to look out east. Verdict: smoky.
Before we could set up camp we went up to Sunrise and had a little stroll around Lake Tipsoo. It was popular, but quite pretty.
We got our camp set up pretty quickly, which was good because everyone was ready for our first (but not last) lunch of PB&J sandwiches.
After lunch, we went to see the Grove of the Patriarchs, which features the coolest pedestrian suspension bridge I’ve ever seen.
Benji in the hollow of a fallen old-growth tree.
I didn’t take any pictures of the trees themselves because there’s really no way to capture the humongousness of the old-growth trees. I feel sad just thinking that we could have entire forests like that, had previous white people made different choices. Sigh. ANWAY, we spent a good long time playing in the glacially cold river on our way back. (Left to right: Jordan, Benji (sitting in the water), Colleen, Joe.)
Benji left a wet slime trail when he slid down a natural tree slide on the way back to the car.
Colleen and I had a grown-ups only walk to Silver Falls from our campsite. I like midweek camping! Way fewer people.
We acquired a map of Mt. Rainier National Park, which our resident navigator studied assiduously.
Not pictured: Tuesday evening we played Zorch, a Boy Scout game introduced by Uncle Jordan. This involved running through the dark woods trying to sneak up on someone who was sitting in the dark with a flashlight. If the person hears you, they shine the flashlight on you and you have to go back to the start. Benji loved it. I loved that nobody broke any bones running and sneaking through the dark woods.
On Wednesday morning, we woke up early and arrived at Reflection Lakes at like 8:30 am. And WOW! I’ve never seen Reflection Lakes so… reflect-y. They face east, and the sunrise light and still morning air really made for perfectly spectacular conditions.
From Reflection Lakes, Colleen, Dad, and I did the Pinnacle Peak hike while Jordan and Benji had a little uncle-nephew bonding time. Our hike involved a pretty steady grade up something like a thousand feet. Here are some more pictures from that hike.
I know I keep saying “spectacular,” but seriously.Spectacular hardly covers it. I kept saying “WOW!” and “Holy cow, look at that!” almost the entire time. Meanwhile, Colleen was thrilled to spot a couple little pikas and one marmot in the many rockfalls.
After a fun adventurous morning, everyone crashed at the campsite for a while in the afternoon.
While everyone was still resting, Benji and I went to the river in the campground and he played with a couple of random other kids, floating bark in the river and them dropping rocks on them.
We introduced Benji to the game Love Letter, and although he didn’t win the first couple rounds we played in the evening, everyone played another 12 rounds on the drive home and he won four of them. Not shabby!
After packing up our campsite today, we went up to visit Box Canyon of the Cowlitz before heading home. We stood on bridges 115 and 180 feet above the water level. For the record, that’s terrifyingly high.
This is very, very high. Gulp.
After Box Canyon, I drove us home. We spent the afternoon unpacking, then washing and vacuuming out the Honda Pilot we’d borrowed from a friend of mine for the trip.
Overall, I have to classify that in the top 10 of my vacation trips. It was just the right length; everyone got along well; Benji got to play with Colleen and Jordan, but hopefully didn’t suck them completely dry; we accomplished each person’s bucket list activity; the weather proved just perfect; and it came at the exact moment when we needed it.
Life is going to be hard for a while now, but I am so thankful to have had that time and opportunity for this vacation to start everything off right.
