Friday 8/24/2018     We were 83 miles away from Mount Rainier National Park and decided to go see it.  It took over two hours to arrive.  The temperature wasn't too bad at the entrance to the park (around 60 degrees) but the further we drove up the mountain the colder it became.  (around 38 degrees)  Brrrrrr....... The mountain is 14,411 feet high and is the tallest mountain in the Cascade Mountain Range.  It is a volcanic mountain and is considered to still be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.  Because of its large amount of glacial ice, Mt. Rainier could produce massive lahars that could threaten the entire Puyallup River Valley and poses a grave threat to the southern sections of the 3.7-million-resident Seattle metropolitan area.  A lahar is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow that flows down from a volcano.  We entered through the ranger booth and drove several miles into the park to The Paradise Visitor's Center.  The parking lot was full and we circled around it many times hoping someone would leave but after 20 minutes or so we gave up and drove a short way down the road to a secondary parking lot and were able to find a place to park.  After a short uphill walk, we made it to the visitor's center.  We watched a short movie, visited the gift shop and walked around and read their informational signs.  The plan was then to walk behind the visitor's center on a couple of paths that lead to different scenic areas where you can view the mountain.  It sounds like it would have been a sight to see - only when we arrived the entire mountain was covered in a thick, massive layer of fog. Visibility was about 100 feet.  We did take a mile, round-trip walk through the meadows and saw a waterfall.  We walked a little more and then found the lodge and walked around inside.  It was a beautiful, old lodge made out of logs.  I imagine it is quite expensive to stay there.  A lot of people were just hanging around in the common area probably hoping that the fog would lift.  We walked back to the visitor's center parking lot which was now full of our Chinese Tour Buses that seem to follow us everywhere and since it was late afternoon, we decided to head back to the trailer.  On the way back down the park road, we stopped at several look-outs.  One was a walk down a nice, pine-needle path that began with an old stone bridge and led to a spectacular waterfall.  Another was an area where at times there is a huge flow of water but now was just a small stream surrounded by rocks.  Eventually, after several stops, we made our way back through the entrance booth, back to warmer temperatures and started our two-hour drive back.