Cody is spending some time here at home so we decided to have a family adventure, pack it up and head up to Mt. Rainier for some hiking!
We stopped briefly in Morton WA for breakfast .. seems we found the perfect place! LOL
We chose the Van Trump Trail and headed up to Comet Falls.
One of the highest waterfalls in the park, Comet Falls was named because some people thought it resembled the tail of a comet. Van Trump Park honors P. B. Ban Trump, who, with Hazard Stevens, was one of the first people to stand on the summit of Mount Rainier.
For two miles we climbed steadily up hill until we reached a smaller waterfall near the base of 320 foot Comet Falls.
We sat, rested and cooled our heels. Cody even stuck his head in the ice cold water!!! He quickly learned to plug his nose in rushing water .. hahaha .. such a boy!
From Comet Falls we continued to climb - there it switchbacked .6 mile uphill to the junction with the Rampart Ridge Trail.
We went to the right towards Van Trump Park, where the trail winds through the meadows until it dead ends in .5 mile. Elevation gain = 2000 feet!
Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens stood out to the distant south while the Kautz and Van Trump Glaciers dominated views of Mount Rainier to the north.
We sat & rested there and munched on some blueberries from the backpack. The mosquitoes found us rather quickly so even though it was beautiful, we didn't sit too long!
What a perfect day of hiking together! 5.8 miles round trip. We were all happily achy, hot and exhausted.
We drove home, grabbed some frozen pizza and cold beer and called it = perfect!
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