It rained.
Not too hard, but enough to test our huge purple batwing tarp. It worked–covering the entire picnic table with room on the sides for supplies and at the front for our folding chairs.
Breakfast was a little chilly even with coffee and cocoa.
So we drove around the mountain
One of the joys of Mt. Rainier is your ability to chase the weather. When it is wet on the west side, it is often dry and sunny on the east. We gathered layers, toys, snacks, and other essentials and headed for Sunrise.
As a bonus, we got snow and a deer at lunch!
We started up the nature trail at a pretty quick clip. It’s amazing how quickly you gain height.
Ben was eager to climb. Gramma Mary tried to keep up. 
Alpine meadows 
Majestic mountains 
Ever tinier cars
Any way you looked it was breathtakingly gorgeous.
The top had it’s own kind of barren beauty.
There are mountain goats in this picture. Way, way down there (far left, middle)
We saw a hoary marmot up close. Lynsey spotted it right beside the trail. It paralleled the trail for quite awhile before finally crossing and heading downhill. The melting snow left neat tubes of dirt where some critter had burrowed. They were everywhere.
Ben soldiered on, trotting, trudging, stopping to play with rocks, and spending a little time on dad’s shoulders. He decided that a very short pair of hiking poles would be pretty fantastic. Rob’s telescoped down small. Score!
Lynsey took most of the pictures on this trip. Thanks Lyns!