Drive to Mt. Rainier
Today was a travel day, but we had less than 150 miles to Mt. Rainier. About half of it was narrow roads or mountain driving, so it took us 3.5 hours to reach the Cougar Rocks Campground. We have a nice, large campsite that is shaded in the afternoon, but sunny in the morning. In the morning, our solar panels re-charge our batteries, and in the afternoon, the shade keeps the motorhome cooler.
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and then drove up the mountain in the early evening. Our first stop was to check out our favorite early-summer wildflower area near Reflection Lake, but it was nearly all bloomed out. Although Mt. Rainier had lots of snow this year, they had an unusually warm spring. That melted the snow early and changed the wildflower blooming schedule. We completely missed the early wildflowers.
We drove up to Paradise and then drove the loop around the valley where we saw the mother bear and her cubs last time we were here. We saw her nearly every night last time, but we had no luck tonight. We may have been a little later, and she may have already moved out of the meadow and into the trees.
We returned to camp shortly before dark and enjoyed the cool evening weather after a very warm day.
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