Today was a 13 hr. day. I decided to drive the full loop (rather than just drive to Paradise…by way of the Nisqually entrance) around Mt. Rainier. Some of the drive was on windy roads with steep drop-offs. Our first stop was Sunrise, on the Northern side of the mountain. It was in your face rugged beauty.
Next we drove to Silver Falls, a short hike to a beautiful water fall.
We ate our packed lunch and stopped at Reflection Lake next.
From there it was a short drive to Paradise, where we wanted to hike. The trails were shut down due to late snowfall, so we drove to Longmire and hiked the 5 mile Rampart Ridge trail, which took about 2 1/2 hrs.
Notice the bee on the flower…
We didn’t see any bears…but some cute deer!
Just outside of the National Park we found the Copper Creek Inn for dinner. The food was good and the yuppy rustic ambiance was cool!
Sherry Lachelle Travels 
Have become a fan of your blog now. Amazing place and awesome photography!!! 🙂
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Thank you so much!
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By the way,what is the amount of megapixel of your digital camera?
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Hi…it’s a 12.3. I’m glad you’ve bee enjoying them!
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Thank you for showing all of us these breath taking pictures. it makes me appreciate how beautiful the world around us really is.
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Thanks for the lovely pictures of my favorite place…. they must have had a lot of snow this year for the Paradise trails to be closed so late in the year! Amazing. Glad you enjoyed the Copper Creek Inn, I’ve stayed there before! Long ago, they had roadside tables set up selling their pies to drivers on the way up to the mountain… we always stopped to get one on our way to the campground.
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I wanted some of the pie..but my husband wanted the brownie..ice cream..so we split that!
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