Camping at Mt. Rainier

Collin and I went on a fantastic camping trip Aug. 7-9 at White River Campground, located in Mt. Rainier Nat'l. Park (on the NE side).  Below are the photos and description of our 3-day vacation in the wild!

Our Campsite: C19 A portion of the Wonderland Trail (which we hope to conquer) ran right behind our site.

Mt. Rainier in the background, crossing over a little wooden bridge. The picture does not do the ferocity of the waves any justice!

Hiking along part of the Wonderland Trail... looking up to see evidence of civilization. Just can't get away from it.

I just loved the contrast of colors of the bark and the inner part of the tree. I'm sure my dad would love to get his hands on this one!

Bear poop? There are no dogs allowed on this trail. This is about the time we started talking loudly, shouting random songs, whistling, and clapping our hands as we walked. All at the same time.

There I go on the Wonderland Trail.

Crossing back over the bridge to the campground.

Thank you, bridge and self-timer feature, for taking this picture!

We made friends with Chippy.

Unlike past chipmunks we've dealt with while camping, this little guy was very friendly and didn't beg obnoxiously. He packed his cheeks full, scurried off to another area, dug a hole, put the nuts in the ground, covered the hole, and even rolled a pine cone over his spot to mark it! haha... it was so cute!

Probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip. This was taken while hiking at Sunrise. We took a 5 mile round trip hike up to a small fire lookout built in the 30s (in later photos).

Frozen Lake... this picture doesn't show how blue the water really was. Can you spot the tiny line of a dirt trail going up the hill? Yeah, we hiked up that... plus a lot more.

Frozen Lake again.. trying to capture the blue hue of the water.

After a few miles of hiking already, finally it is time to branch off and start the Mt. Fremont Fire Lookout Trail!

Try to follow the trail all the way up to the left side of the hill. This was fun!

After that previous steady climb,we had to walk along this hillside. You do NOT want to trip here. Can you see the fire lookout way off in the distance? It is toward the right side of the picture...

In case you couldn't see it in the last picture, I zoomed in to the fire lookout.

I was really hoping I wouldn't trip or lose consciousness and fall down this hillside.

I love wildflowers more than any other kind.

Finally near the fire lookout. Look at the view! Feeling very accomplished.

Zooming in to the mountain in the distance!

Collin with Mt. Rainier in the background

Fire lookout up close.

Panoramic view off one side of the peak.

We met a nice man who offered to take our picture.

Nice little cairn someone built.

Amazing perspective up there!!

Panoramic view off the other side of the peak.

Aren't these cute?!

I loved walking on these rocks...although they were not the most stable, it sounded like we were walking on glass or hard clay pieces.

Driving back down from Sunrise to our campground.

Time for s'mores later... We don't use regular Hershey's chocolate. We use Kit Kats....

....Reese's peanut butter cups....

... and cookies & creme! Yum!

Last photo at our campsite before we head over to Tipsoo Lake.

Tipsoo Lake was just a tad frozen over still.... Google Tipsoo Lake images, it is AMAZING when it's not frozen like this. It was still fun to trample through the snow.

Collin at Tipsoo Lake!