Snow on Mount Rainier

​Snow, our first of the season, fell on us Sunday when we climbed up to 6,400 feet at the base of Mount Rainier.  

You could no longer see Mount Rainier as it was covered by the storm clouds.

We could see the stormy weather approaching Rainier, the tallest peak in the continental United States, when we left Vashon Island that the morning.  Vashon sits in Puget Sound, just south of Seattle, providing a comfortable temperate climate and lots of wildlife, including a bald eagle that dropped by the ferry terminal just as we were departing.  

The port of Tacoma across the water, with storm clouds gathering above Mount Rainier.

A bald eagle at rest in Puget Sound.

We spent two nights on the island, visiting John Sellers and his family at their farmhouse, sharing meals and their hospitality.  His partner, Genevieve, had climbed to the summit of Mount Rainier and we were warned of the possibility of snow. 

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A shingled cottage near the ferry at Vashon Island.

At the altitude we were at, the snow didn’t stick around and neither did we, heading east to the drier side of the Cascade Mountains to explore for the next week.