Day 56 Mount Rainer

Today we drove from Spokane to Mount Rainier National Park. We first stopped at the east side of the park. The visitor's center was closed so we looked around for a couple minutes. There were huge trees and a slice of a tree that was cut down in 1963. They believe it started growing in the mid 1200's. It was amazing. We then decided to keep driving. The road through the park is amazing. It is full of tall old trees and then the road will curve and you will get a perfect view of the mountain. We stopped at Paradise visitor's center to get Jr. Ranger books for the kids. They did a couple pages then we went to watch a movie about the mountain. The kids didn't realize the mountain was actually a volcano which kind of scared them. At first they didn't want to go on a hike because they were afraid that it would erupt and kill them. After a little talk we went on a hike to Myrtle Falls. It was a half mile to the falls, then we took a couple more short trails back to the visitors center.

We then went back to the visitor's center to finish up their Jr. Ranger books. When they finished their books they received their 14th Jr. Ranger badge. Part of their oath the Ranger added that they should give a cookie to any Ranger they see the rest of the day. So they ran out to the van and got a package of cookies and ran them back into the Ranger. He was really surprised and told them that it had never really worked and offered to share the cookies with them. They declined and we went upstairs to look around the gift shop and exhibits. We then headed off to see if we could find a place to stay. We had not made reservations because we didn't plan on coming here. We were planning on going to Olympic National Park but because our days seem to be running out quickly we changed plans. We drove around a campground which was full so we decided to see if we could find a hotel or cabin.  The sun was at that part of the day when it is really hard to see out of the windshield so the few lodges on the side of the road we saw too late. So we ended up on Interstate 5 and found a Econo Lodge in Kelso/Longview. It is not great, but it was pretty inexpensive.  So tomorrow off to Oregon Coast. Nathan and I were on the Oregon Coast about 11 years ago so it will be cool to take the kids.