Mt. Ranier National Park

We are overnighting in an RV park, Elkamp Eastcreek, just outside of Mineral. When booking this most of the campgrounds in the park were already booked. Although about 30 minutes away, this smaller park is really nice with big tall trees, water and power hook ups.

Drove into Ranier and stopped to get out first glimpse of the mountain at Longmire....but like many of our mountain "views" from other trips, the mountain had some cloud cover! We actually never got a full look at Rainier during the day, but this park has a number of great stops to get a full view. Even with clouds, the views are great. Rainier is big, over 14,000 ft! And you get to see it from so many different stops.

We spent some time at Longmire, with the original administration buildings, gas station, wood trestle bridge and gift shop. This is in the southwest corner of the park. Pretty quiet day, not many people at this location.

Drove on and stopped at Christine Falls, one of a number of falls in the park. Because this mountain still has well over a dozen glaciers, there are lots of glacially fed creeks and waterfalls. Odd to see the silty, glacial waters that we associate with Alaska. The falls were really pretty, and glad we stopped. They were just a short walk of the road.Read more