Worldwide Wanderers

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 ...

Hiking Skyline Trail in Mt. Rainier - July 11, 2024 We made it to the Paradise Visitor Center parking for the Skyline trail early to get a spot. We parked in the lower lot because the lot by the Visitor Center was signed for a 2 hour limit. To remember everything, we needed to make a few trips back and forth, doh. We stopped by the restroom, not finding the water filler until after the hike, so had to settle for restroom sink water. It was nice and cold. We found the sign that showed the latest snow cover -- green: clear, blue: full snow cover, and green/blue dashed: partially covered. The color coding was different than the NPS.gov site that we were monitoring before our trip. It also recommended taking the Golden Gate Trail instead of east Skyline. This cut off a mile, and I was planning it anyway. So, about 4.5 miles and 2000 feet elevation gain. Paradise was at 5400 ft, and Cougar Rock Campground was at 3100 ft.  Trying to get a picture of some of the blue in the glaciers. Mt. ...

Washington state National Parks - Planning, First Day - July 10, 2024 Stays We did not start planning this trip early enough to book the National Park camping. I booked the first campsite in Mt. Rainier's Cougar Rock Campground on February 20, 2024 and was only able to get the first night (Site E 26), of our two planned nights, reserved with the second night with no availability. I signed up for the Recreation.gov Alerts to be emailed an alert if there was a cancellation for our second night. This did work, and after forwarding the alerts to another email address that went to my Fitbit, I grabbed one fast enough, where 200-300+ others also received the alert, to get E 18). Before getting this, we did book an expensive site outside of the park as a backup. It was booked on hipcamp.com, and we knew it would cost the $8 hipcamp fee to cancel if we were able to get into the park campground.  Next, I was only able to get Staircase Campground in Olympic National Park; Hoh Rainforest and ...