WOW THAT'S REALLY BIG

WHAT. AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa it's HUGE, no picture ever could have prepared me for how enormous these mountains are. It's beyond words really, you just need to see this. By far the largest ANYTHING I have ever seen in my life. The mountains around it are stupendously enormous too. This place was great, the scale of these mountains is easily appreciated by the numerous vistas and views even just when driving up.

I took the Steven's Canyon road/entrance, which took me to a little resort and place called Paradise. The parking area at the top of this road gives a nice open view of how freakishly huge the peak of Mt. Rainier is. Did I mention that it's really big? I don't think I did...it's very very big!

The inside of the hotel has a very strong aesthetic going on and it's really nice. It's very cozy. There's a gift shop, restaraunt, and coffee shop in there too, but I did not participate in any of that.

I finally got to try out my snow shoes. Turns out, they work, and its better than not having snow shoes, but hiking on snow is kind of a pain in the ass anyways. But not as bad as sand. Sand and snow are both a pain to walk long distances on...

I didn't hike the peak trails, but I did faff about in the high snow for a while, testing out my new snowshoes, and wandered around the snow covered forest. The snow is very deep! So deep that streams of water flow underneath it like caves, and you can walk over those caves and it still doesn't collapse. I also was making my way towards Snow Lake when I realized I was getting terribly sunburnt because I did not dress properly...so I turned around, which is lame, but I did it anyways. This day was not impressive of me...But I still had fun, and was totally bewildered by the scale of the place.

I ought to come back and do what I was too tired to do today. Or maybe get my fill of snow in the Ruby Mountains in Nevada instead? Who knows, but snowy alpine forests and lakes are a great vibe...very pretty!