Mt. Rainier to Olympic

Mt. Rainier one more hike and on to Olympic - July 12, 2024

For our last day in Mt. Rainier, we hiked Carter Falls trail. Trail of Shadows trail was connected to our campground; we planned to hike it but never made. For the last day, Carter Falls sounded more exciting. Here we also got to hike beside both the clear Paradise River and the cloudy (glacial flour) Nisqually River.

We stopped by Longmire for some quick wi-fi, trying to find which Walmart along the route to Olympic's Staircase, had an air pump in stock and visited the restroom. Then we headed out and toward Olympic.

Our first stop was Walmart in Tumwater; the Walmart app said that they had them in stock. I asked someone (btw Walmart employees in Texas don't help you, but in WA and CA, they will); he scanned the barcode for where it was supposed to be on the shelf, tried to help, and then noted that the 1 available could be returned/broken (the app does not say how many are in stock). Instead of more Walmart strike outs, we tried REI next. They had a forced air bag for backcountry hiking where you want everything to be small and light. It was $35, so we decided against it in the end. In the same mall, we went to Dick's Sports next. We found two only because they were randomly moved to two different wrong places. We went with one that worked on 9V (to use the car) and 110 plug. We asked to get the price, and he noted where they normally went. It was $25, so still expensive, but we did made room in our suitcase to bring it home.

We could now go on to Staircase. We did stop at Lake Cushman Lookout on the way.

Continuing along the lake and lake goers driving and parking, this was a dirt road for part of the drive; when in the national park, it was paved again. At the campground, there was no check-in process; just go to your spot. We set up camp. Next to us, a family had two hammocks setup. One child woke up in the hammock and was inconsolable for about 30 minutes. It must have been a very bad nap, but I can't imagine that post-nap could ever be that bad. I was worried that the kids would sleep at night in the hammocks. Luckily, no. We found the camper profiles to be very different. Here there were big, loud groups that stayed up late and slept in late. In North Cascades, they got up early like us. We were at site 9; it was close to the flush toilet/running water restroom and across from the river. The restroom was nice in that it was dark when no one was there (for stargazing) and then lights came on outside and inside when one approached.

After setting of the campsite, we hiked the Staircase Rapids Loop trail; the trailhead was very close to our campground. When we went through the toll booth earlier, they gave us a map and write up about the Staircase area specifically, as well as the park map and newspaper. The hike was describe here as, "This easy 2-mile trail winds through old-growth forest to a bridge over the North Fork Skokomish River with a 200-foot elevation gain. A spur trail leads to a huge fallen cedar." We wanted to see some moss hanging from trees that we would miss at the Hoh Rainforest section of the park. We saw the Big Cedar, but the map also showed a side trail to a Hydro-plant that we did not see a sign to and missed.