September, 2025
Today I drove back towards the entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park, not up the mountain to Paradise, but back down the hill about 5 miles, still well within the national park. There is one spot on the drive up this road, after you enter the national park, where you drive across a very short bridge and off to the left is your first full view of Mt. Rainier. I shared that view when I first drove into the national park on this camping trip, in this blog post. I loved the view, so I drove back down there today so I could spend more time there.
That short bridge, where I paused for that view and photo, crosses Kautz Creek … hence the name of this blog post. 🙂
I arrived and parked in the parking lot. Hey, almost no one is here, super!
But then, wow, not two minutes later, more folks arrived. I have yet to meet any unpleasant people up here on any of my trips up this mountain, whether camping or just on a day-drive up here. In fact, I offered to use one of the cell phones owned by the young couple on the left in the photo below, and take a picture of the whole family. They loved it.
And then I crossed the road and headed over to the trail that led down to Kautz Creek.
At the bottom end of that wooden path, was a nice large area to sit, several signs to read, but, unfortunately the shrubs were so large that there was no view of the creek! I could hear it, and I could almost see it through the greenery, but not quite. On prior years’ visits here, the creek was visible from this spot, but not today.
On the other hand, there was a peek-a-boo view of Mt. Rainier in the distance. Hmmm, maybe if I zoom in and change the settings on my camera, I can get a better photo of that mountain.
Ah, yes.
I sat and listened to the creek for a bit. Then I walked around and read the signs, many of which had photos in them. I’ll share just a few of the signs here. Click to enlarge the images here.
I often research history and geology, things like that, before I visit a place, but I always learn more after I get somewhere and then read the signs and talk with local folks. The power of this mountain is amazing … the wind, the snow and ice, the water. The mountain has a climate all its own, and it controls hundreds of thousands of acres, miles and miles and miles of land in all directions.
And then I walked back up the boardwalk, back towards the parking lot and my pickup truck.
Part way back, I noticed this trail off to the side (below). Hmmm, it’s several miles long, with a few trails heading off from it too.
It sure is enticing.
But I didn’t bring a backpack with me with water and other hiking necessities required for a hike of that length. I’ll just have to put this one on my list for another day, or another camping trip up here. What a beautiful world with so many wonderful things to see and do. How blessed I am!
I hope the same for all of you folks too. Find places or ideas or hobbies that fascinate you and learn about them. Or write a book (or a booklet, or a blog) about what you already know and share it. There is so much about this world to love.