Today was supposed to be our big hike on the Skyline Trail at Paradise, but Carol didn't sleep well and didn't think she was up to it. I decided to get up for sunrise and drove over to Reflection Lake. About two miles from camp, I knew this might not be a great sunrise. In fact, it was very unlikely I would see the sun. The clouds completely enshrouded the mountain, and the best I could do driving to Reflection Lake was 10 MPH. When I finally got to the lake, I joined the other 15 photographers sitting in vehicles hoping the fog would lift. It didn't. Slowly, one or two at-a-time, the others left when waiting proved futile.
I decided to drive up to Paradise to see if it was above the clouds. It was a gorgeous morning there as the sun ducked in and out of the clouds. As I sat in the parking lot, the clouds erased the face of Rainier, and any thoughts of hiking at Paradise vanished. As I drove around the Paradise and Stevens Canyon area, I discovered one viewpoint with a clear shot of Mt. Rainier. But there was only one clear viewpoint.
I returned to camp and went back to bed. It turned out to be a dud of a morning.
Carol and I ventured out in the late afternoon to see what we could find. I've wanted to get some good images of the Tatoosh Range,
but the peaks were covered with clouds and the lighting wasn't working. We drove up around the Paradise area, but Rainier was still in hiding
and the Tatoosh Range wasn't looking any better from this altitude. On our way back to camp, we drove around Paradise Valley
.
There on the edge of the meadow were a black bear and her two cubs. They were a long way away, but they were very entertaining. After about
30 minutes, the mother stashed the cubs in some nearby trees and then found a nice resting spot for herself.
We drove down to Narada Falls to see if we could photograph the falls without getting soaking wet. The two weeks since we were here
last reduced the river flow enough so we could photograph below the falls in a very gentle mist instead of a torrent. We took our time
and shot from several vantage points. The breeze was so slight that we could include the cow parsnip in the foreground and still have
them in focus.
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When we finished shooting at Narada Falls, we decided to return to the Paradise Valley and see if the bears were hanging around. The mother bear and her two cubs were closer this time, but they were still at least 100 yards below us in the valley. As we were photographing the bears, two weasels ran into the grass just below us. One of the weasels got his courage up and crept out of the grass almost at our feet. He retreated before anyone had a chance to photograph him. A minute later, he was back, but only long enough for us to get a good look and positively identify it as a weasel. We continued shooting the bears until the torture from the mosquitoes overwhelmed our need to shoot more bear images.
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