Day 22. Amazing Mount Rainier.

Today's destination was this:

But first we had some amazing riding down the Yakima Canyon,

and then up and over White Pass, elevation 4,501 feet. By getting going early we had the roads to ourselves and the riding was amazing. We had a slight glitch when an indicator bulb on my bike blew. Fortunately we discovered this when we stopped for coffee and even more fortunately there was an AutoZone just down the road from the coffee shop. An easy fix!

We then rode into Mount Rainier National Park and took the road that wound around the southern aspect of this amazing mountain.

We were so lucky to have a perfect day to see the mountain, I have read many accounts of it being shrouded in cloud and not visible. We even had our picnic gazing up at the glacier covered peak.

After lunch we continued through the park to our lodging for the night, the small town of Eatonville, still within sight of Rainier.

We were not particularly comforted to see this sign just around the corner of our motel:

From Wikipedia:

Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in Washington and the Cascade Range. It is a large active stratovolcano peak and is located just east of Eatonville and just southeast of Seattle and Tacoma. Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list.

Mount Rainier is ranked third of the 128 ultra-prominent mountain peaks of the United States. Mount Rainier has a topographic prominence of 13,210 ft (4,026 m), which is greater than that of K2, the world's second-tallest mountain, at 13,189 ft (4,020 m).

With 26 major glaciers and 36 sq mi of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each more than 1,000 ft (300 m) in diameter, with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed the world's largest volcanic glacier cave network within the ice-filled craters.