rainier sunny

is that an oxy moron?

Obviously since it was sunny, I took a million and a half more photos on this day to Mt. Rainier. Oh, it was gorgeous. I'll just post a few here, but if you click on them you'll find even more in my flickr.

This was the view as we arrived and headed down onto a new trail.

The meadows were in full bloom and were absolutely beautiful.

And of course again Bella insisted on hiking herself, and had us hopping around trying to keep her from wandering off a cliff.

Once she fell asleep, I was able to crouch down and get a few close ups of the flowers.

Then the mountain came out in all its cloudy splendor on our hike back up. The clouds were just gorgeous in the sunlight, and totally brought out the icy sides of the mountain.

When we hiked out, we were really surprised to find clouds had overtaken the lodge. It was downright misty.

As we drove out, Dave snapped a few more shots. I liked the warm feeling of this one, so I processed it a bit to bring it out. Please ignore the fingerprints on the lens. I had no idea until I got home, but I should have guessed since Bella likes to play with lens caps.

This brings out exactly how I felt driving out in the sunset. And you can see how low the river is. We've only had a few days' rain this summer, and this was after two days that it rained. It's almost twice as full as it had been 6 days earlier.

As usual, we had a great time, took too many photos, and can't wait to go back!