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Blue PantherCLICK on any photo to enlarge for better viewing. . .
This is a photo of two friends who took me camping last week on Mount Rainier in Washington state. They are crossing the bridge on our return after a hike. (Please excuse the sun spots in the photo.)
These two wonderful people are my blessing that I write about this week. But I am getting ahead of my story. . .
These special people have shared their beloved mountain with me this year, not once, but twice! I first visited Mount Rainier for my birthday in January when they took me snow shoeing for my first time. I wrote about that back in January and had wonderful snow photos too. (See index if you missed it.)
This time, they picked me up for camping on Monday afternoon and we arrived at Mount Rainier in time to set up camp and enjoy a wonderful salmon dinner grilled on a campfire to perfection.
The next morning, I woke up to blueberry pancakes made on the campfire. (I had to buy fresh blueberries at the Farmer's Market Saturday so I could make myself some more!)
Then, we went on a hike with a Ranger and other people in a group and learned about the area up behind the Paradise Inn and we were lucky enough to see deer
a marmot (I think)
and beautiful flowers too.
I will share more of them in another post later this week.Then the guided walk was over before we knew it and, just the three of us --
well, mostly me -- wanted to continue on over another bridge on the Skyline Trail
to see the remaining snow near the Nisqually Glacier. We went over one bridge
but the second bridge was out and not feasible to cross the river
in my eyes so . . . can you believe it, I voted to pass up the snow near Nisqually Glacier! (I did see pockets of snow in the landscape.)
We went back to the old Mount Rainier Visitors Center after a brief stop at the car for our picnic lunch.
We enjoyed wonderful turkey sandwiches, Pepsi and cold soup which turned out to be quite wonderful and I have asked Katney for the recipe.
They are in the process of building a new visitors center that will be better suited for the amount of snow they get each winter.
There was so much more to my wonderful camping experience on Mount Rainier but that will be for another day.
Thanks, dear friends for being a blessing in my life. 
This is the same bridge I started out my story with. Crossing it the first time before our hike in the woods there didn't bother me too much but when we returned, I was scared to death with that rushing water and I clung to the railing and closed my eyes partially until I reached the other side. Did you notice that we had blue skies part of the time?
The new growth contrasts beautifully with the tree.
The rock slides look like an angel on the left and Jesus on the right.
The branches growing from the side of this trunk were contrasts from dead to fall colors to olive green.
Can you see the SMILEY face in this tree trunk?
Our trail on our 3rd. hike looked like this most of the way. . . only in a short distance was it a wider smooth trail.
Blue skies and snow!
Tree trunks.
I liked this bent tree trunk!
This tall tree was all hollow inside. To get the length of the tree, I laid on my back to take the photo. CLICK on it to enlarge.
