2005.06.21,
Mount Rainier
We took a detour to Mt. Rainier on our drive
from Seattle to Portland.
The drive to the mountain was an interesting one. We got to
see the back-woods side of Washington, the small roads, away
from the trendyness. Frankly, a lot of the areas looked
sort of trashy, like the bad commercialized street in your
town with all of the car dealerships, or the dirty, genetic
experiment sector with all of the bait + gun shops, ice
cream stands, rusty pickups, tires, etc.. Not postcard
material, unless you are searching for the underbelly, the
core, which we weren't -- personally, I was looking for a
side of Washington much different than Seattle, and that
is what I got.
As we approached the mountain things became more scenic. We
stopped at a small rest/picnic area and walked around for a
few minutes, that's where my first few pictures are from. I
could feel it in the air, something big was lurking. I was
kneeling down, aiming to take a picture of something and then
I fell over. Strangeness all around.
We started driving up a hill, up winding roads surrounded by
trees which occasionally gave way to vast views of gargantuan
meadows, expanding as far as the eye can see. Yes, this
was the promise land. I felt a strong urge to impregnate
Amy with quintuplets and start chopping down trees to build
our house in the valley. Raise goats and cattle. Become
one with the land. But the mountain spoke to me, and
let me know that this was not the time. Our day would
soon approach, but for now our task was to seek out the
mountain, record our findings, and continue to cultivate our DNA.
Soon, we were greeted by a forest ranger in a booth, a friendly
gal who accepted our entrance fee and gave us a map.
We were now inside of the park. It looked like Endor. Trees
everywhere, thick like a mullet to touring lice. We parked
at quite a few places to take pictures. As we continued up,
we could see the peak of the mountain, beautifully capped
with snow, a breathtaking monstrosity, a pile of God's cocaine.
In hindsight, I wish I would have taken more pictures. The place was
unbelievable. But, it was one of those situations where I knew that
my camera just wouldn't do it justice.
We drove up to a tourist center, hung out for a few minutes, and
then exited the park the same way that we came in. We still had
a significant drive to Portland in front of us. But, what a grand
detour this was. On our way out, it started to rain. We saw a few
deer on the side of the road. As we continued travelling down the
winding hills, we came to a line of cars. There was a deer
on the left side of the road, eating. At first, I thought the
car in front had stopped in fear of hitting the creature. But
the deer wasn't even interested in us, and then I saw their
window go down and a hand extend out, aiming a digital camera.
We were third in line, and the line behind me was at 5 and counting.
They continued to aim, still no picture taken. I was too
surprised to be annoyed, but apparently someone behind me
skipped that step, as they sped by, flipping the bird
to all involved. Ahh, America the beatiful.
