Moon over Big Bend National Park

A reward for getting our buns out of bed early,

on the day we drove out of Big Bend.

xobb

uh, why is the porch light on?

 

oh.

it's the planet.

=)

bb

my reward for tending the chickens early...

 

bb

brrring, brrring! brrrring, brrrring!

brrrrring, brrrrring...   
(phone ringing)

brrrrring, brrrrring...   

 
brrrrring, brrrrring; brrrring, brrrring...

brrrrring, brrrrrring...

Hm... Oh, well. (click)

(sigh...)

bb

More Mount Rainier National Park: snippets of Sunrise

    
For those of you who don't know, Sunrise is an area of Mount Rainier NP that's east of the mountain peak, and is much drier than Paradise (which is south of the peak and 4 of 5 pictures on Mumday).

I

Love

Sunrise. 

Scariest part of my day/week/month: walking the snowy part of the trail above. Walking slowly, carefully on previous passers paw-prints praying precarious position prevails. Made it past and determined that we NEVER had to go back that way (gravity pulling me DOWN vs. slowing-my-up would be even scarier) and suddenly my mood was MUCH better.

I'm a snow-weenie. I attribute it to early formative years being in San Diego. Saltwater I'm not afraid of. =)

Well, snow I'm not afraid of. Slipping OFF of snow down super-steep-slope-which-plummets-100s-(1000s?)-of-feet-below-me-with-no-ice-axe-or-other-thing-to-grab-hold-so-I-die scares me.

I made it! Oh, and the view back is cool, too.

Frozen Lake is just visible just downslope from the furthest point of the trail, to the right of the brightest snow blob (that's technical talk).

 Looking west. (still celebrating the fact that I didn't fall =) )

Looking south(ish).

Alright. I am alive, grateful, and ready to continue forward...

Tiny bit more up before...the view...

Oh! Check out the scale: TEENY tiny people.

Herein lies the joy of this trail: you feel SO CLOSE to the mountain. It's so amazing. Great views everywhere, but THIS experience is a major motivator for THIS hike.

pretty alpine posies

lunch view, Part I. Tiny, beautiful plants abound.

lunch view, Part II

(yes, there is a story there, which I'll expand upon later)

So, out of web-space re: pics, so until I clear that, I'll just show you this one, a delightful caloric wallop after all that hiking. =)

Pastry I made which required a "butter packet"

FYI, anything requiring a butter packet is going to be good, even if slightly burnt.

Heavenly trip.

Whattapark.


(sigh)


biobabbler

Mount Rainier Mumday--interpreted

Per my tradition, here's Mumday annotated:

RAMROD = Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day

Over 10,000 feet of climbing in over 150 miles

In-SANE!

This is a shot of the water and potty stop just as the cyclists summit the Paradise climb. I went to Mt. Rainier this time 'cause a friend got his name pulled out of the proverbial hat so was in the ride. A TOTALLY over-the-top tough bike ride.

Anyhow, it was fun seeing all these (mostly) guys in their cartoonish jerseys with this HUGE GIANT LOOMING mountain dwarfing EVERYone. We were definitely there at the Mountain's (her Majesty's) pleasure. If it decided to blow that day, we'd be indetectably small detritus. Mt. Rainier freaks me out that way.

So, while my friend biked 150 miles and 10,000 feet, I traipsed around Paradise (exceedingly well-named, in-SANEly beautiful). This is along the Skyline Trail, just before I missed my right turn to get to Paradise Glacier, my initial goal. 

This is a view up the valley I SHOULD have been hiking up, little did I know at the time, but as it turns out my mistake meant I got to cross this charming bridge and continue along an over-the-top scenic trail...

Like this view of the Tatoosh Range--SO in love with these mountains. Miss them terribly. They are so dark and look SO GREAT with snow on them. Hubba-hubba.

Loved the snowbank covering the trail (the park apparently had most of its precipitation in the form of snow in March, so their spring was protracted) and the crowd of wildflowers, JUST out from under the snow, blooming their heads off.

The next day we all hung out and I made a butter-packet-involved-dessert (always a sign of tastiness) which took most the day. Nice, mellow day.

One day later, we drove to Sunrise, which is in the eastern part of the park, and is much drier, where I took this photograph, a living example of "luctor et emergo."

Plants that can do things like this, grow right out of rock, stun and amaze me. More shots of Sunrise (and everything else) anon.

(sigh)

Love

That

Park.

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