Saturday, August 26, 2017 An Important Birthday! Mine!

It's my Birthday! What a magnificent day. I got birthday calls from my sisters and I was up and getting dressed about 7:30 or 7:45. Today I was filled with anticipation, I was going to get my Senior Park Pass for $10.00. This pass gets you into all the National Parks for free and some other places also - National Historic Parks, National Monuments, etc. It also gets you half price camping with the National Parks and the National Forests. Steve has the Golden Access pass because he is a disabled vet and it works the same way. This is a birthday I was happy to have. I did not dread turning 62 nor did it seem just like a regular day - because usually I work on my birthday or used to have to go to school on my birthday. So today was special. Steve and I and the dogs headed out in the pickup to Mount Rainier National Park. It took us about an hour to get there and when we arrived there was a line at the entrance, but not too bad.

So away we went to the Visitor's Center, just stopping at a few place to get pictures. We arrived at Paradise Visitors Center, the parking lot was packed and cars were lined up on both sides of the road for about a half to three quarters of a mile on the roads to the visitor center.

This is a picture of the Longmire Historic District - near the entrance to the park.

The Magnificent Mount Rainier! And a waterfall. If you look closely you will see the people!

Look close on these pictures and you will see the cars lined up! So Steve let me out and he circled the lot with the dogs. I went in and got to the desk and asked about getting my park pass - they said you buy them at the entrance, they don't let us handle money here. Great, I also forgot my Passport book to get stamped. Now we have to drive back to the entrance (20 miles at a slow pace) to get my pass. I headed out to meet Steve and return to the entrance gate and stopped at a restroom to take care of business - long line! I finished that and remembered I wanted to buy a T-shirt - so back inside and upstairs to the gift shop. I bought Steve and I a T-shirt and a book about Mount Rainier. If you spend about $50 or $60, you get a free recyclable bag! Then I went to the pickup - Steve was very close to the visitor center - so that worked out great. I told him what the deal was and then he drove us back to the entrance. I had great success, and got my pass for $10. The girl who sold it to me even wished me a Happy Birthday!

So then we decided to drive to the other side of the park and stopped in strategic places to take pictures. This National Park is very scenic and the drive through is lovely. It is hard to take in the immensity of these natural wonders with just pictures. When you stand and look up at the mountains you know you are just a small part of this world. We took some lovely pictures at Steven's Creek - saw a few beautiful flowers.

The white flower is Pearly Everlasting and the Pink one is Thimbleberry. I didn't get pictures of Reflection lakes. Sometime you just have to remember them in your mind. We got to the other side and stopped at the small visitor center there and I stamped my passport book.

We toured the campground on the east side. Then we started back to the RV through Packwood (where we bought 2 yummy cookies) for my birthday, then Randle, then Morton (ice cream) then the RV. WOW! Big Day! After a short rest and walk with the dogs we went to Lake Mayfield Resort and had supper lakeside- a great way to finish my big day!

My favorite National Park in Washington is: The North Cascades, Then Mount Rainier, Then Olympic Peninsula. They are all wonderful and well worth the visit. I would return to all of them! There are so many different ecosystems to see in Washington. Mount Rainier is very scenic and it has a special place in my heart because I got my Senior Park pass here!