2014 Exploring The Northwest – DAY 25 – Searching for Mt. Rainier: Battle between the GPS and Us!
We made it!
Breaking camp this morning was the usual routine and we expected an easy, two-hour travel day. After all, we could see Mt. Rainier from the Cunningham’s house. Our plan was to drive to the eastern entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park, then to take a very scenic and twisting road through the park, and then end up camping near the western entrance. We trusted the GPS, but it didn’t seem to be taking us on the roads we expected as shown on our maps. It didn’t help that the Washington state road identification markers were mostly non-existing. We didn’t seem to be going in the right direction. We were in farmlands, and little villages that we couldn’t find on our maps. So we added some waypoints into the GPS but it just didn’t take us on the path we expected. We then went to Google Maps, and Apple Maps…each gave us yet different instructions. ‘One’ of us took over, which was hardly helpful except to get us completely lost and required several U-turns.
First view of Mt. Rainier
We finally gave in to the Garmin GPS’s insistence and let it guide us to the western entrance of the park…it took us five hours to finally get there.
Later, when we were able to connect to WIFI for a few minutes, we checked out other people’s experience and recommendations. It was not good news about the road we originally wanted to take. A couple of survivors suggested that we get our personal matters, wills, etc. in order and call our family before getting on that road. Looks like the GPS [or universe] took care of us and saved us from ourselves.
Big trees – Little Men
Meadow with hot springs water
One of the original hot springs
Strolling in the Hot Springs Meadow
Our campsite was near Longmire, which is named after the family who discovered hot springs in this area. They built a spa facility for tourists and were quite successful. Once visitors started coming, they discovered the beauty of the area and the mountain. As a result, it became our nations 5th national park in 1899. How fortunate! The park is filled with many walks and hikes with a full spectrum of difficulty.
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