Friday, September 27, 2024

Mt. Ranier

I went to Mt. Ranier National Park this past week. Apparently there are currently 63 national parks. I've been in about a third of them. I once thought it would be cool to visit all 63, but now I don't think I want to do that. Some aren't very accessible - in northern Alaska or on an island, etc. But I have run on trails in several and it would be a cool goal to run in 25 of them. I think I'm at just over 20, so I could do that. I ran a couple miles on a trail and didn't see a single person. That seemed a little weird, because otherwise, the park was crowded. The trail was steep in parts and had a lot of rrots and rocks, so you have to be kind of careful or you trip and fall - which I've done a number of times on trails. On the plus side, if you jog, rather than walk, you can see more of the trail and feel a sense of accomplishment. It is  litrtle harder, though.

It is September, so the summer rush was through, but it was a really nice day, so a lot of people were there. We got their in the morning so it wasn't too bad at that time. The line of cars to get in took about 20 minutes. When we drove out at about 2:00, the line had to be a mile long and I estimate the end of the line would be waiting 2 or 3 hours to get in.

A problem with going in September is its probbably the lowest point for amount of water. The rivers were just trickles and there wasn't much snow and it was kind of brownish. In spite of that, the mountian is very impressive and the star of the show. 

If you want to avoid crowds, maybe visit a smaller mountain and just get closer. It might have about the same effect. Anyway, I've been in a few National Parks and this ranks way up there.

 

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