Wednesday July 29 (Northwest Trek National Park/Mount Rainier)

Another lovely day, blue skies and very warm. After a late breakfast, we made a packed lunch and headed off to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. 


Once at the Park, we found a car park and headed to the entrance. We were booked to ride on the 2 pm tram that goes through the Park.

We walked to the tram starting place and were given a talk by the driver, she pointed out some of the safety rules and told us about some of the animals we would see. 


While she was talking, four Caribou Walked past the fence behind her, a couple of them were sporting rather large antlers.

On the drive through the Park, we saw a variety of animals - Moose, Long Horned Sheep, Deer, Caribou and Bison as well as a variety of water birds. 

The tram itself had three carriages and no windows so we had unobstructed views. Several times we had to wait for the animals to move off the road so we could continue. 

 The tour round took about an hour and, at the end, we were greeted by the four Caribou who walked down the road ahead of us and then passed right by the side of the bus.

We then found a shaded area to eat our lunch, I also picked up the T-Shirt and magnets I had put on one side. 

We then went for a walk round an area that had several exhibits of animals, all spacious with open viewing and in natural habitats. some of the animals were sleeping tucked away so we did not see them. 


We did see Lynx, Cougar, Bobcat, Wolf, Brown Bear and Black Bear. It was a very enjoyable visit.
 
 We drove south and entered Mount Rainier National Park at Buckley. The park is heavily forested with a lot of large Cedar trees. We stopped at Kautz Creek for our first view of the mountain for some time, it sure is beautiful.

We then headed to Mount Rainier National Park. 

I was using Google Maps and something very strange occurred. I had no service and yet the blue location marker was still working, moving along the road we were on at the correct places!! The rivers and creeks along the way were showing evidence of a very dry spell, with little water flowing.
We continued up the road until we were stopped at the National Park Inn for roadworks. After a lengthy wait, we continue upwards and stopped for photos at another viewpoint.

We travelled on and ever upwards and finally reached Paradise at an elevation of 5,400 feet. There is an Inn with a restaurant, cafe and lodgings up just under the mountain. We wandered around and took some photos then went to the cafe and grabbed sandwiches for tea, it was 8.30 pm by this time! We saw the rays of the setting sun and then watched the beautiful moon, only two days shy of a Blue Moon!

Finally, we left for home, it seemed much quicker on the way down from the mountain and we did not have to wait at the roadworks as we did on the way up. The dusk was beautiful with the pink reflection from the setting sun as well as the light from the moon.

Back home, we were welcomed as per usual by two excitable dogs and Jim showed me the Big Dipper and the little Dipper, so clear n the night sky. Such a wonderful day out, thanks so much to Cheryl and Jim for taking me on such a great trip.