Peaks and Low Points

 Mt. Rainier was one of the parks that we have been looking forward to the most. Although we've never been there, we had high expectations! And we knew it'd meet all of them. Why? Not only was it one of the tallest mountains that we'd be visiting, but the park also has green meadows sprinkled with wildflowers --two of our favorite things. And in this beautiful backdrop we experienced some steep highs and lows. 

Our first high is twofold! We camped using some really nice sleeping mats (thank you kind benefactor 🫡) in a really nice campsite (thank you Big Creek Campground). We also got to go hiking again! We hadn't been hiking too much in Annacortis, and it felt difficult but good to hit the trails again! 

Unfortunately, we also hit a new low... as in we got our car stuck in a ditch. Oops! It wasn't ideal to bottom out with our back wheel drive completely out of commission. It was even less ideal to have no cell service either! Thankfully, we met some kind folks who thought we looked a bit out of place in a ditch, and some very kind park rangers who towed us out (thank you mason crew)! It was cool to put our tow eye (gifted to us by a very kind man when our alternator failed in Flagstaff) to the test. We are so blessed that our car doesn't seem to be leaking anything, and there's no visible damage to the axles or anything of the sort!  

Coming back into the park was a bit embarrassing after backing into a ditch previously, so we needed to accomplish something. We set our eyes on hiking up the Golden Gate trail! It was about 5 miles round trip up to a stunning view of Mt. Rainier. Beyond the clouds, we could even spot views of Mount St. Helens! Even when the clouds rolled in, the view was incredible! Its not so often that folks from Illinois get to live with their heads (quite literally) in the clouds, but we love the views from up there.

We did some other hikes in the park, meandering around the Wonderland Trail and Ramparts Ridge, and we enjoyed eating a delicious watermelon for lunch, but leaving Mt Rainier, we will surely remember our highest highs and, admittedly, our lows too.