| Miles | MPG | Avg. Speed | |
| Today | 452 | 46.4 | 45 |
| Trip | 5731 | 46.9 | 48 |
|
Food |
Hotel |
Trip Savings |
| $52 / $129 | $70 / $75 | AAA – $26 PriceLine – $915 Real $$ – $285 |
| Mount Ranier National Park | $0 ($15 without National Parks Pass) |
Slept until 8:00 after the last couple days, then headed for Mount Ranier, passing about two dozen of these little coffee shacks. They’re all over the place and no two are the same, it seems.
Just a reminder not to make Ranier angry … you wouldn’t like it when it’s angry.
One of the glacier paths carved into the mountain. In 1840, the glacier was past the bridge, but retreated until the 1950s. Then it advanced again into the 2000s.
Ranier is covered in glaciers.
At the visitor center, we got some information about the trails and headed up the one that would get us a good view of the Nisqually glacier.
It’s July. 75-degrees and the trail is covered in snow.
Lots of snow.
We didn’t make it all the way to the best viewing spot, but given time constraints, we got pretty close and got a great view of the glaciers.
And then comes the walk back down …
… to find the right trail to the visitor center.
On the way out of the park, we took a walk down to one of the rivers.
Once out of the park, and pretty glad to be getting off a mountain in daylight this trip, we stopped for some lunch.
The Wildberry Restaurant has some great food. Aryn had the red potato chowder – I had a cup of that, made with celery, corn, cheddar and bacon, and a grilled ham and cheddar sandwich. Then we both had a slice of huckleberry pie. I was tempted to try a yak burger, but wasn’t sure how my stomach would take something that different – and it was a long drive the rest of the day.
GPS took us back west toward Tacoma and Seattle, before heading north and then east around the north side of Ranier.
As we were coming out of the Cascades into western Washington, it started to rain lightly. I saw something floating and after a closer look, sure enough, 80-degrees and snowing. The flakes melted as soon as they hit the windshield, but while they were in the air we had snow flurries.
We stopped for gas and I used the laptop to book a hotel in Spokane. We are now far behind schedule as a result of the tire, extra time to get off the mountain from Crater Lake, and the unexpected routing around the west side of Ranier. We were supposed to be at a hotel near Yellowstone tonight and we’re two states away.
But I have a bag of Ranier cherries that were half the cost and have twice the flavor of what makes it to Orlando, so it’s a good day.
