Mt Rainier Day Two

So, Sunday we were up and out the door before 7:30am in hopes to cram as much of the park in as humanly possible AND still do some hikes and see some great things. So we headed down the road and stopped for breakfast at a local joint called Buzzy's...apparently around for 25 years and it was small, cute and had some great food. Then, we headed to Carbon River. I wanted to check out the rainforest area there and possibly do a hike. When we arrived we found out that the road back was washed out. So it was 3 miles to the trailhead then another 3.5 mile hike. Since the road went through the rain forest we decided to hike the road up past where it was washed out and then turned back. It was incredible. Not just the nature, but where the road was washed out...entirely! We recognized a lot from our trip to Hoh Rainforest in Olympia National Park...so we saw a banana slug, a nurse tree and a collinade (sp?). It was great. Then, we headed to Mowich Lake so Tim could try out some fly fishing and we had a little picnic along the lake. It was beautiful. Then, we headed back to the main hwy to hit the most popular sections of the park. It was hard to get around as the flood of Nov 2006 had washed out many roads. So we had to go out of the park, then get back in to get around. But, it was well marked, and in hindsight we should have just concentrated on the Carbon River and Sunrise sections and left the rest for later. But...we pressed on. We entered through the Southwestern Entrance and headed towards Longmire, Paradise, and Ohanapecosh. We stopped to do a short downhill hike to see some falls, then we headed up to Paradise to walk around the visitor's center and see the view of Mt Rainier from this point. Then, we left and headed down toward the Grove of the Patriarchs (a Hike Tim wanted to do). We made it there in time to hike it before it got too dark! Then it was time to try and find a place to eat. We were unsuccessful. So we ate our cheese, crackers, grapes and snacks that we had packed. We had to drive to Naches for gas and then it was a 2 hour drive back to our hotel. We got in close to 10:30-11pm. Tired!! But, we managed to see the WHOLE park!