Mt. Rainer. What a spectacular place. Weather was somewhat uncooperative, but that didn’t stop us crazies. See, the original plan was to drive up to Reflection Lake (last picture shown), pick a couple of easy hiking trails, eat lunch at Wildberry Restaurant, and then drive to Hood River, OR.
How it actually unfolded – road to Reflection Lake was closed due to bad weather (it seemed like it snowed not too long ago), all hiking trails didn’t appear that easy because the ground was so moist, and Wildberry Restaurant was closed for the season.
The beauty of roadtrips, however, is that everything can be improvised. Z is the master of coming up with crazy ideas while I tend to be more careful with my actions; I still end up going along with his plan.
We stopped by at Narada Falls (first picture) from viewpoint after realizing many of the roads were closed. Then, Z noticed that if we take Paradise Trail that is only 1 mile long in which started at Narada Falls, we might get actually close to Reflection Lake. So…we did. Let’s just say we didn’t have the right shoes to handle the muddy, slippery, and flooded ground, but we managed to hike that mile. We also saw some gorgeous waterfalls along the way of course. Once we made it up to the entrance of Reflection Lake, we noticed that the park rangers were looking at us a little strange. We asked them if it would be ok to WALK over to Reflection Lake even though the road is closed…they were like “sure, why not.” We walked for another mile on foot to finally reach Reflection Lake. We couldn’t see much because of the fog, but it was hauntingly beautiful. And the fact that it was just the two of us on a closed section of the road meant that it was just us and this vast, terrifying nature. Everything around was so quiet. It brough an undeniable peace upon me, but I also felt so little and powerless at the same time. The bad weather started picking up faster, so we made our trek back to where we came from.
Instead of taking the trail back, we decided to simply follow to long, winding road back to the parking lot. We ended up walking about 4 miles total, which was rather unexpected in the weather we were in, but it was extremely satisfying.
Since the restaurant we planned to go was closed, we picked a random restaurant on our way of the mountains and shared a patty melt. It was such a simple meal, but so delicious!
Tomorrow, we are planning to stop by Multnomah Falls, explore Portland, OR, and make our way to Cannon Beach by end of the day.
PS – We also gave in and bought a selfie stick. Why didn’t we get this sooner?!
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