57 Dave bought us some great presents at the gift shop to remember this epic day. Mommy even got a marmot! Sam got an owl and Ben a squirrel! THANK YOU! Now time to hit the road for a three hour drive home! It's nearly 8pm already!
58 Hitting Mt. Rainier for the wildflowers, even though we KNOW parking is going to be a nightmare! We're optimistic :)
59 The boys and I want to build a cabin this summer. Something like this? I should say next summer. Ok, not something this amazing. A shelter for boys...
60 The mountain was clouded over until this moment! Amazing to get some shots of it! We are so lucky. We DID get a parking spot and we had an awesome hike on the Skyline Trail - 6.5 miles and about 1600 ft elevation gain at 6800 ft elev. We think it's the longest hike Ben has done yet.
61 Just arriving and we think we see the summit of Rainier! We finally found a parking spot!
62 Taking a look around the lodge.
63 All these lights were repainted by a former park ranger. Something like 96 lights needed new wraps.
64 Ben stores gum in his pockets for us!
65 You will get to enjoy a lot of wildflowers in these shots. We managed to hit the peak! We were told when you see asters in bloom, you're at peak.
66
67 This is an aster.
68
69 The Tatoosh Range.
70
71 Marmot sighting!
72 Love! Ben told me to take this shot. He has a good artist's eye.
73 Another marmot! Middle of photo.
74 They are half-raccoon, half-dog!
75 Maybe part bear?
76 Late melt-off created lots of opportunities to get wet!
77 But everything is GREEN! I'm not adjusting the saturation on any of these! It looked just like this. Amazing.
78 Snowman Sam!
79 Fog is rolling in again!
80 Ben has to go to the bathroom a LOT.
81 BIG chipmunk!
82
83 Really can see the glaciers from this trail.
84 Sliding!!!
85 Ooops!
86 People think I'm really cute! (Says marmot!)
87 My marmot.
88 Sam, you are so funny!! He said this was a handlebar mustache!
89 This is my phone wallpaper. I actually took this with my Samsung Rugby. Pretty good!
90 Photo-bomber!
91 Mom, come look!
92 Dinner by the fire! We didn't think we'd get so lucky to get a table at 6pm, but we did and what a location!
93 I forget what the ranger is pointing out...oh! How high the snow gets. On average 640 inches!!!