Personal Narrative: Welcome To Mt. Rainier

I remember thinking to myself, I really need to get up there and explore the mountain. Sadly, due to a heavy workload, I wouldn't be able to get to the mountain until the following Summer. When that day finally arrived we packed up the kids and headed for the mountain. The sky was clear and a deep blue; like something from a National Geographic Documentary I watched as a kid. Once we arrived at the Nisqually entrance I saw a small log house in the middle of the road and my heart began to beat a little faster with each minute we waited in line to pay our entrance fee. I remember feeling as though I was somehow leaving modern time and leaping back several hundred years to a time when there were very few inhabitants in the area. Then

I pulled up to the little building and was greeted by a young woman wearing a Smokey The Bear hat. "Good morning, welcome to Mt. Rainier. Would you like a map today?" She said. I handed her the entrance fee and said I would love a map. She handed me my receipt, the map and a little news paper about the park. "Thank you." I told her, and drove into the park. The first chance I got I pulled the car over and we all looked at the map. The windows were down and the a breeze blew through the trees and in through the car. The clean, crisp smell of pine and redwood swirled throughout the car as we looked over the map. The map was filled with contour lines and names of waterfalls and alpine lakes that dotted the map. It was like looking at a treasure map and searching for the "X" that marked the spot of the hidden treasure. Not knowing what to really look for, I folded up the map and began driving up the tree lined road higher and higher, deeper and deeper into the park. I wasn't sure how far it was when we came to our first slowing of traffic. Was it a herd of elk? Or maybe a black bear along the side of the road foraging for food. Well, it was neither, it was Christine Falls. Cars were parked along the side of the road and people were