July 13, 2022
Who woulda thought I’d go to Paradise twice in a week? But Vickie from North Carolina who has been my friend for more years than I can count on my digits is in town for one day only. She and I have ventured to Rainier a couple or three times before and decided it was the perfect way to spend the day. It was glorious. And, unlike last week, there was a mountain! (Read Paradise Lost here if you missed it.)
We arrived in the parking lot just before 8:30 and headed to Myrtle Falls, the direction I did not go last week.
The avalanche lilies were still everywhere (though about to bid adieu to their short life) and there were more western anemone/Pasqueflowers than a week ago.
I found myself wondering if the lilies, in their brief glory of about two weeks, envy the anemone, which metamorphose from one stage to another all summer.
Almost all the snow on the lower trails melted out this past week! Look at Deadhorse Creek Trail then and now!
Can you get too many photos of the Tatoosh Range? Maybe you can post too many. Whatever.
The hoary marmots were lazing in the sun, and were such posers. My camera was on the wrong setting, but I finally got it figured out just in time to get a one last shot of these two loves before they returned to their den in front of the rock. (Get a room already.)
We did have to make one snow crossing heading back to the Inn, on a trail I turned back on last week, on the advice of two scouts.
One year, when we were here, we overheard a hiker say, “Why would anyone ever leave Paradise?” A good question, but today we decided only because it gets very peopley. We headed to Base Camp Grill for lunch, after a quick stop at Reflection Lake.
Probably I will get my flower fix on less crowded trails, but I’ll be back here for my annual Skyline loop hike in autumn, when the marmots are gathering their winter stores before the snows return in the endless cycle.
and Vickie!
Writing Down the Story 
Sigh
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