Thursday 9-7-23 Mount Rainier National Park

 

Mount Rainier National Park

We woke up to temperatures in the 40s. Once again we changed time zones so Larry woke up at 5:00 am. He turned on the Wave3 heater to take the chill out of the air. I crawled out of bed about 6:00. We weren't in any hurry to leave Willows Campground because we only had 35 miles to drive to get to Mount Rainier National Park. I got dressed and then heated up the oven to bake cinnamon french toast sticks for breakfast. The oven heated up the Minnie very nicely.

After breakfast we relaxed for about an hour. Then we got the Minnie ready to go by putting things away and secure for a trip down the road. We were on the road by 8:00. The mountain road we drove was gorgeous.  We drove by a huge mountain lake called Rimrock Lake. The lake was very low and at places we saw big islands of rock. We drove by other campgrounds on the side of the road. The road twisted and turned up and down the mountain. We drove through a couple of tunnels and saw a lot of beautiful scenery. As we drove we saw Mount Rainier at a distance. Mount Rainier was beautiful, it still contains a lot of glaciers.

Tunnel

 

Mountain range

  Mount Rainier 

We arrived at Mount Rainier National Park around 9:00. The entrance to the park had a tall wooden gate. We drove to the Ohanapecosh Visitor Center to get a site for the weekend. The lady who helped us said there were 15 sites available. The lady and a gentleman also told Larry there was no cell service and the closest was about 11 miles away. We told them that wasn't a problem. She handed a laminated sheet of the campground to Larry and told him which sites were available, we decided on #47, which was a great site. It was close to the bathroom, which had running water but no showers. We paid for three nights. We were going to stay longer but the main road through the park was only open on the weekends because of construction.

 

 

 Entrance to Mount Rainier National Park

 

After checking in we walked around the visitor center and stopped at the desk and got a hiking trail map. The gentleman (Ranger Tom) showed us the hiking trails from the campground. He also said on Friday and Saturday night at 8:15 they have a ranger led program and he was the host. Friday was a sing-a-long and Saturday was a talk about public lands. A little later I walked back and got the other three trail maps. Both times the ranchers were friendly and helpful.  

 

 

Visitor Center

 

We found our site with no problem and setup the  Minnie for three nights. It didn't take long. Larry backed the Minnie in, he found out the Minnie wasn't level so he moved it forward and got the blocks out. He set the blocks in front of the Minnie and I directed him on how far to go, we only had to block the passenger side of the Minnie one block up. The sites are very small and you're close to your neighbors. Once we were setup we relaxed until lunch.

 

The campground has a community dumpster and recycling area (plastic bottles and cans). There was drinking water available, there are six spickets mounted into a wall so while there I walked down and filled our water containers. We wanted to conserve water. They didn't have a dump station but they did have fresh water available to fill your RVs tank.

 

After lunch we setup our chairs and enjoyed our campsite. Larry read and I worked on Sudoku puzzles. Larry didn't think we would get any solar because the forest was too thick.

 

At mid afternoon we walked around for 40 minutes. We walked all the loops, which were A thru H. The only loops that were open were A, B and C. The A loop is a first-come-first-serve loop and that is where we stayed. They ended up opening D later on because the other loops were full. As we walked we saw a big group (mainly kids) having a great time. Later on the kids walked around and picked up trash. We saw a beautiful river flowing by the campground. We crossed over a bridge to get from Loop C to the main street. While walking our loop we stopped by the day area, where there was a place you can walk down to the river. It didn't have a lot of water but it's early. We had a great walk.

 

After dinner I walked around for 35 minutes. I walked four of the loops. As I walked I said hi to the other campers. Everyone I talked to were very impressed by the beauty of the forest. I ended up doing 15,000 steps.

 

Creek through the campground

 

 

Area where you can get to the water