Any news from Rainier?

How are the flowers? I leave in 6 days and am beyond excited....

Well....My trip was cut short due to an ankle injury... Nothing major, but it did keep me off the trails. And since almost every trial there is steep I didn't see much sence in staying when I couldn't hike. I didn't see the mountain more than 20 minutes for 3 days, I twist my ankle and the frickin skies clear....????lol. I still had fun though. But.....the flowers are there and will be wonderful when your'e there. I did see alot of lupine and paintbrush in the beginning stage of bloom. Mazuma ridge had some great stuff also. But from what I've heard the flowers are better at Sunrise side of the mountain. But remember the road to Sunrise side, right at the Ohanapecosh entrance is closed from 7am to 1pm daily for road work. Have fun.

Sorry to hear about the ankle, Jeremy. I have a bit of kneecap bursitis I'm fighting with right now myself - Hoping the (slight) swelling goes down soon..... if I left really early in the morning for Sunrise (how long is the drive from Cougar Rock to Sunrise anyway?) the road would then be open? I'm sure everything is a bit of a zoo due to the construction work at Paradise.

Ah man, sorry to hear that Jeremy.

I just got back from a couple of days at Paradise. In the Paradise Meadows the paintbrush, heather, valerian and anemone are all pretty nice but there is very little lupine. Mazama Ridge still has a ways to go. The road closure mentioned above was only for Aug 1-2 but they are doing construction and are warning about delays. There is also alot of road construction between Graham and Eatonville.

I'll be up there this weekend, John. I'll let you know, and hopefully have a couple of shots to share.

Jeremy, Hope your ankle will be better soon.
Just came back from Rainier. Spent a couple of days, and got lucky with the weather. Hiked up by Paradise and the Skyline Trail. We were hoping for more lewis monkeyflowers along the creeks. There were many bunches, but it seemed like some weren't blooming yet. The flowers were beautiful. A few that stood out to us were magenta and harsh paintbrush, beargrass, purple asters, pink mountain heather, some lupines, a few shooting stars , avalanche lilies, and tiger lilies. Perhaps not quite as prolific as some of the best years, but still a very good year for wildflowers. Shot 6 rolls of slide film, and just mailed them off.
(Watch out for the horse flies along the moist areas, they're mean buggers. )
On a positive note, Cougar Rock campground seemed almost bug-free.
Harald

I just got back from Paradise this evening, boy donno about the rest but I was in for a treat. This is the first time I've ever seen so many wildflowers. I took the wildflorwer brochure and could almost spot all of the flowers. Nisqually trial has a plenty of Scarlet Paintbrush and Cascade Aster along with some lupines. The skyline trail, errr - rather the skyline escalator has a ton of mountain daisies and 'some' monkeyflower ( sorry can't recollect the first name, the yellowones I mean ). I also spotted a hoary marmot eating lupines , but by the time I took out my telephoto - he was gone. So yeah theres lot of flowers but hey its a zoo out there, hopefully weekdays aren't that crowded. Good luck.