Some days

It just doesn't pay to even think to go to Mt. Rainier NP unless you're ok with clouds. Not clouds of the normal sort, but being inside clouds. With Paradise at 5,400 feet elevation and the Puget Sound blanketed with a low cloud layer, like today, the mountain is simply draped in clouds, as seen below about 10 am today.

But then it's also the days I sometimes enjoy to realize you're standing inside a cloud. You know it will be different. Driving in on the last section of road to Paradise you really know something is different.


Arriving at Paradise and looking south the trees are barely visible, let alone the Tatoosh Mountains.


You park and find Mt. Rainier to the north isn't there.


And getting out of your car you discover everything closed and no one is really there. Only critters and the diehard hiker/climber who likes these days.



And if you decide to hike and don't know to follow maps or have a GPS unit with you, make sure you remember which way you came as the route will be quickly lost behind you. And it's the old rule for hikers like me, stay on the trail.