poetessa: Mount Rainier, Washington State October 2011

We were able to fit in two trips to our beautiful Mount Rainier this year. We were there mid September and again in late October. Driving through the beautiful evergreen forests to the mountain is fun and relaxing.

Sun shining through the branches creates beautiful patterns and textures. Moss on branches reminds me of the velvet on deer antlers

Even a fractured tree stump takes on beauty as the moss and lichens begin to coat it

We get glimpses of the mountain as we travel up the winding roads. It was a crisp, beautiful day.

We pulled off on one of the turns to get this view of the Nisqually glacier, the beginning of the Nisqually River that flows close to where we live. Notice the stand of yellow trees among the evergreens in the middle of the rocky bed.

There are several pull outs where you can get good pictures, we don't miss many. There is so much beauty around us, we are both photographers. I took 111 pictures during the trip.

Paradise side of Mount Rainer, the lodge in the distance, light green. There is also a visitor center, rest rooms and a building that houses the guide service. We saw a helicopter on the way up. They sometimes fly people to or from Camp Muir. The snow poles are in place.

What a gorgeous sight the mountain is on a sunny, clear day, especially in the fall with the beautiful colors around it. God has blessed us with such a beautiful world. This is part of a circular walkway and the stone wall where there are steps leading to the trail up the mountain.

Breathtaking beauty! I have a poem posted on this blog in an earlier post that describes how I feel about this mountain.

The colors are thrilling and I'm a huge lover of evergreen trees. Here on Rainier some of them stand so straight and tall, like Centurions on guard.

Coat time up here, that's ice by my feet! Those are part of the Goat Mountains behind me (opposite Mt. Rainier) Mountain goats live there. If you ever visit, bring your binoculars.

After walking part way up the trail to the mountain, I turned around and took this panoramic view of the Goat mountains, they also are spectacular. They already had a skiff of snow on them. In the summer the flowers bloom all over the fields and the aroma is wonderful. In the fall there is a more distinct herbal aroma.

A section of the Goat Mountains

Those beautiful trees I talked about

I really liked how this picture turned out, framed by evergreens, with the Goat Mountains, trees, colorful foliage and even a few of the buildings peeking through. You get great pictures the higher you hike!

To an artists eye, even rocks are interesting; textures, shade, highlights. It would be fun to paint.

Don on the picture taking trail with the Goat Mountains behind him

Typical in a mountain forest

Getting closer, better pictures of the mountain. The clouds were blown away at this point for a great view.

You can see some of the trail meandering between the trees

We're getting high enough now to see snow on some of the tree boughs

There's a little snow on the trail here and there as we get closer, you can see the rocks strewn across the landscape. We passed several gentlemen who had hiked up to the mountain and had been skiing and/or snowboarding, they said the snow was incredible!

A few puffy clouds swirling around the crown

The beauty of being so close and experiencing the fresh air, colors and joy of God's creation is exhilarating!

Anvil Rock from the Paradise trail. Camp Muir lays somewhere below this massive outcrop on the edge of Mt. Rainier. Guides will take climbers there, they usually spend the night and begin the ascent up Mt. Rainier early in the morning the next day. Click on this picture to enlarge it and you can see two people on the left, two thirds of the way down from the top of the slope.

More snow, just adds to the beauty of the area

Coming back down the trail I spotted something moving behind a tree at the side of the trail. We quietly walked on the furthest side of the trail to the other side of the tree and here's what we saw. A Ptarmigan. It didn't seem the least disturbed that we were there.

The Ptarmigan walked out onto the trail, pecking for food all the time. We just stood and took it all in, this was the first time we had ever seen a Ptarmigan up close and personal. What a beautiful and big bird.

We stood there watching it for at least ten minutes, how beautiful it was. I want to paint a picture of it.

Ptarmigans are a grouse like bird that live in the high tundra areas. They don't fly much and start growing white feathers, as you can see in the picture, around this time of the year. When the snow falls their new white feathers helps them hide from predators

As the evening approaches you see the fog begin to move in and create different layers of landscape beauty

Tree limbs make great frames

A small stream running down a rocky bed through the evergreens. At one point, further up the trail, there was a small stream running down a long valley, the sun was shining on it and it looked like molten gold. I wasn't able to catch the effect without a special filter for the camera.