I still remember my first visit to Rainier early one spring many years ago. I had driven along sinuous mountain roads enthralled by the lush vegetation along the lower approach. I had truly felt that I was in Paradise, which was also my destination for the day. However, as soon as I had breached the forest cover in Longmire, I realized that the trip was not going to be worth it as the the entire peak was hidden away in the clouds.
I had continued driving about 30 minutes up the road, hoping that the sky would open up. Instead, Paradise was just a gloomy rendition of a city park in the midst of winter: slushy snow substituting for the ground, gloomy skies and ground-level fog that nixed visibility and no hope of seeing the mighty Mt Tahoma. I turned around disappointed, vowing to come back again.
And now, living in the Pacific Northwest, I get to spy the mighty Tahoma on every clear day, and I get the opportunity to visit it few times every year as it is almost close enough for a day trip. This image was from one such return visit to capture the first light on Rainier reflected on a lake.
Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA
The Short Summer
An early summer's hike into the alpine terrain of Mt Rainier revealed a landscape slowly recovering from winter's fingers. Melting slow slowly give way to undulating grassy meadows, drained by tiny creeks harboring the first generations of insects. Down in the meadows, tiny glacier lilies pop up en masse, the first flower to blossom in the short spring. They add a burst of yellow and white to the landscape as the rest of the flowering plants send out tiny shoots skyward.
The pressures of a short summer have led to many interesting adaptations in the fragile alpine ecosystem, and thanks to the well-preserved landscape, the flora and fauna grow and thrive right up to the eaves of winter. There are many such beautiful niches in Rainier, and one just has to walk around to find them.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA
Morning Mysteries
I am sitting on the edge of the seat waiting for the results of the election to finalize. The nervousness is palpable, impacting my every awake moment. I try to distract my mind, but the effort is futile.
During times like these, I jump into my archives of photos to find my happy moments, recollecting those blissful scenes that make me feel elevated, and perhaps a little less edgy. This is one such morning scene from Mt Rainier, and it is scenes like these that are my escape from the hard-edged reality we are in right now.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA
Mountain Magic
Grand Park was unlike any other place I have been: a vast meadow budding with wildflowers, with the classic profile of Mount Tahoma and and Little Tahoma framing the background. It almost took me back to a fairytale wonderland, and I would been transported to such a place, were it not for the swarms of mosquitoes, I certainly would have been.
Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA
Jupiter Descending
Some nights are not meant for sleeping; they are meant for talking to the stars!
Ever since moving to the Pacific Northwest, the short summer has meant that observing a clear night sky at high altitude has been more challenging. So I treasure every I night I get to spend in the mountainous wilderness praying for a jeweled night sky.
Here, the setting Jupiter catches the icy summit of Rainier on a clear night in Mount Rainier National Park, while the glow from a fire lookout reminds me that I am not the only one enjoying this beautiful sky.
Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA
Above the Turmoil
I stared at the everchanging cloudscape below me, sweeping over rugged peaks and covering deep valleys, pondering over the beauty of this spellbinding landscape. I cautiously stepped in front of my camera, giving in to the draw of this dynamic panorama around Mt Rainier.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA
A Sea of Clouds
The trail ahead disappeared into the fog barely a few yards in front of me. The moving clouds of mist clung to the slope, marring any views of the surrounding landscape even as I approached within striking distance of the fire lookout that was to be my abode for the next few hours.
I was ready to give up, turn back and go home, but I decided to wait the fog out. And barely an hour before sunset, the fog finally did give in, as it slowly dropped below the lookout, exposing a vista of endless clouds.
I waited until twilight to capture the serenity above the tumultuous clouds swirling all around.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA
Blues of Mt Rainier
I turned my head east, into the glowing orb of the sun. A silhouette of endless peaks beckoned. Mountaintops were lit bright, while shadows stretched deep into the dark misty valleys below. This was a blue sunrise at Mt Rainier
I had arrived at that lookout point at dawn, hoping to capture sunrise lighting the imposing massif of Mt Rainier. As the deep whites of the glacier-capped Mt Rainier cycled through a vibrant scarlet, lush orange, and bright yellows, I became completely engrossed in shooting the light unfolding in front of me. And I had completely ignored the blue silhouette of endless peaks forming behind me. Until I turned my head east.
From atop this peak, I circled round and round: the massif of Mt Rainier on the west, the distant glowing summit of Mt Adams to the south, an unending series of blue mountain ranges on the east, the glacial summits of Mt Baker and Glacier peak to the north. Nowhere else could one be treated to such a noble sunrise vista.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA
Alpenglow at Rainier
I opened my eyes to a loud alarm. It blinked 4am.
I was dazed, a light hangover persisting from last night, and wondering why I had set the alarm so early?
Then it all came back. Sunrise at Mt Rainier. My date was at 7:30am. It is a 2hr drive and a 45min hike to get to the viewpoint. And it was the last weekend before the road closed for the winter.
...
The smooth pavement stretched into the fog, winding between ranches and forests heading into the black unknowns. I didn't even have time for coffee. It was pure determination to capture this that kept me going.
...
Mt Rainier was glowing in an ethereal pre-dawn light. I was still a mile away from the viewpoint, hiking as fast as my legs could carry me. Another 15 minutes.
...
The Belt of Venus slowly dipped into the horizon: a band of pink and blue curving over the western horizon: earth's shadow casted into the sky. And as it descended, the tip of Rainier was glowing pink, matching the color of the sky beyond. I was all alone atop this viewpoint, enjoying Nature's spectacle
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA
A Window through the Fog
I was socked in by the fog. I could see nothing but my own feet and the dirt brown trail disappearing into the snow. The freezing wind was picking up, and my fingers started to numb.
Barely a half-hour earlier, I was enjoying my lunch beside a glistening glacial tarn under warm sunny skies, enjoying grand vistas of Mt Rainier. I had looked up at the Panhandle, eerily calling out to me through the clouds, and decided it would be a worthwhile post-lunch trek. No sooner had I reached within a finger's grasp of the summit when the fog rolled in. The warming sunlight faded awa, replaced by an ghostly fog that blew up from the other side.
Through the fog, visions of the surround landscape, an alien terrain at the edge of a glacial moraine, appeared like windows of light in the darkness. I could sense that, under better conditions, this would have been one memorable vista, but today was not meant to be.
One such vision I had from atop the Panhandle was this peak peering through the thinning fog, and the trail winding its way through the light snow.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA