The Rainier Project

This is one of the first pictures I took on the trip, it is a sign at Cougar Rock Campground. I’ve been oddly attached to this shot since I took it.

Here is a log decaying at Cougar Rock Campground. It was decaying from the inside out.

To match the sign at Cougar, here is the sign for the Twin Firs trail

There were a bunch of little creeks like this at Twin Firs, they were magical.

The little dot of light on the mountain is where we were at at Paradise

I absolutely loved these historic buildings at Paradise

Here is the view from the top of Narada Falls. Note the rainbow ghost through the middle of the photo.

Here is another rainbow at the foot of mighty Narada Falls. I live for rainbows.

This trip to Rainier felt so much different to me than the coast trip, though they shared one important similarity: the majesty of nature. At the beach, there was the vastness of the ocean. At Rainier, it was the wisdom felt walking among the old trees, it was the melancholy and wonder of seeing the blue glow of the Rainier’s remaining glaciers, it was the whimsy of the rainbows that danced in the spray of Narada Falls. This place was vast yet cozy. One of my proudest moments of the trip was earning a Centennial Junior Ranger badge at Paradise. Perhaps it was the length of the trip, but I also felt like I bonded more with my classmates this time around, we had some good times working and learning and playing together.

My group for this trip was Super OG (Super Old Growth) and it consisted of Nick, Tyra, Jasmin, and myself. We approached exploring Mount Rainier through close observation, listening to soundscapes, and Sketching in our field notebooks.