Washington-Alaska 2019: Mount Rainier, Day 1

We disembarked on Tuesday, July 23 around 8am and picked up our rental car in Seattle for part 3 of our Pacific Northwest vacation.  It really felt like we had three separate vacations this year:  Seattle, the Alaska cruise, and Mount Rainier.  

We left Seattle in the morning and couldn't check in to our rental cabin until 4pm, so we headed for the quietest, least-visited part of Mount Rainier National Park:  Carbon River.  Located in the northwest section of the park, Carbon River is unique because it is an inland temperate rainforest.  Visitor facilities are minimal and the main park road is closed to vehicles because of washouts. There were a few other hikers around, but we mostly had the trail to ourselves.  

We opted to hike about 3 miles on the Old Mine Trail. It was mostly flat, following the old road, until we reached the mine trail, and then it was up, up, up for .3 miles.  

Centipede

Spider egg sac

Around the turn of the 20th century, there were coal mines all over this part of Washington. 

When we got to the mine entrance, we ate our picnic lunches.  It was the perfect break at the perfect time.  

Hiking back down.

It was really beautiful and it felt really good to move our bodies after the cruise.  

Can you spot the chipmunk?

Devil's club

Wildflowers

Carbon River is a glacier-fed river.

After exploring the Carbon River portion of Mount Rainier, we headed to Ashford (with a stop for groceries) to our rental cabin. We opted to stay outside the park, which worked out perfectly since Ashford is so close to the Nisqually entrance to the park.

Dinner prep! Not everyone loves cooking after a busy day of hiking and travel, but we really enjoy not having to leave the house to go eat. 

We had a huge backyard with a hammock, hot tub, and room for the boys to explore.  There were so many robins in the backyard that I had to snap a few photos.  

Next up, more of our adventures at Mount Rainier National Park!

Washington-Alaska 2019: Ketchikan

Our final port of call was Ketchikan.  We only had about 5 hours in port, and we chose to go on a Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's boat excursion to learn about fishing in the Bering Sea.  

Some views as we left Ketchikan:  

Crabs 

Fishing

 

We all had bites of king crab -- so good!

We saw so many eagles on this trip, especially on this excursion.  There are lots of eagle pics -- scroll on through if you don't love birds as much as I do!

 

Juvenile -- you can tell by the mottled feathers on the underside.

I've only seen eagles in the wild a couple of times before this trip, so visiting Alaska (where they are everywhere) was amazing. Seeing so many on this excursion was definitely a highlight for me.  

It was salmon season, and this boat was pulling in a net full of salmon.  

Crab cage

And shrimp

The king crab is enormous! 

Octopus

We saw so many salmon swimming -- they pop up with a splash.  

After our excursion, we had about an hour to explore Ketchikan before we needed to be back on board the Legend.  We found a totem pole

and our seventh bookstore of the trip!

Ketchikan

Will was pooped, so he and I went back on board while Gene and Henry explored a little further.  They found chowder in bread bowl, which may have been one of Henry's favorite foods of the trip.  

As we were leaving Ketchikan, we saw this lion's mane jellyfish.

Final views

The pilot boat

We had one more sea day before arriving back in Seattle. We read, relaxed, went swimming, played shuffleboard and enjoyed delicious meals on the ship. 

Our Alaska cruise was a wonderful experience and we are so glad we were able to celebrate Gramma and Grampa's 50th wedding anniversary with them.  Thank you for the trip, G&G!