Mount Rainier National Park - at Longmire Inn

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Our third & final morning we got sight of Mount Rainier, the highest, & most hazardous, volcano in the Cascade Range. Mount Rainier and other Cascade mountains hold a latent potential to erupt again (& again), like Mount Saint Helens. June 30 view, across to Trail of the Shadows. The road to Longmire from Nisqually, the Park's south Entrance (our gateway), is one of the world's most beautiful forest roads. Joe and Ruth against a backdrop of Mount Rainier with the glitter of sun on snow in the morning, & home that night. Seatac International Airport lies about 65 miles north of the Park; driving back from our airport takes 15 minutes or so. The Northwest's tallest mountain, being geologically active (geothermal activity evidence) with recent volcanic events (last eruption ~ 150 years ago), meanwhile merely sleeps.
Mount Rainier, an episodically active volcano, began to grow between one half and one million years ago. It encases over 35 square miles of glacial landscape and looms nearly 8,000 feet higher than anything nearby. Ruth found ripe wild strawberries right in front of the Inn, bringing the earth's beauty to interact with all five senses. Mount Rainier's current summit, Columbia Crest, lies on the rim of a recent lava cone, the upper portion likely removed by explosions and landslides, a reminder of earth's power. At Kautz Creek by Nisqually Entrance (elevation 2023') we bade farewell to the park and Mount Rainier near its center, with a descent into dense forest that yields a varied and extensive ecosystem, and a landscape born of fire and ice.

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