DAY 19 began on a relatively good note. We got up and to Auburn Muffler & Auto Repair just as it was opening. Daniel fit us in right away and less than two hours later we were back on track. We had to get a new muffler and tailpipe as the muffler had a crack in it. It didn’t matter much because the place where the tailpipe broke off really didn’t have a chance to be welded back together.

So we actually were only about 1 hour behind schedule due to the repair. We were off to Mount Rainier National Park. We first went to the temperate rain forest on the northwest side of the park. There we biked 3.5 miles to a trailhead, then hiked 1.25 miles to the falls. It was probably the best falls yet since we had to go through so much to get there (as far as the hike). . . a wet, rocky/log strewn, uphill battle that took about 45 minutes to. Thankfully the hike down and the bike ride back was predominately downhill.

We then set off to Crystal Mountain Resort to ride the gondola up to check out the surrounding views. It was FREEZING at the bottom and even colder at the top, between 40 and 45 degrees. Despite the cloud coverage, we got some great shots and enjoyed the perspective.

We missed the visitor centers being open by about 30 minutes, but I count that as divine intervention propelling us forward. Check out the pictures in the gallery. I have updated the site a bit to contain a link at the end of each post that will bring you right to the photos of the day. We took a nice drive through the park and 3 hours later we were heading to our rest area for the night.

The rest area was closed; I mean locked gates/no entry. I took a look at the map and chose another location. An hour or so later we were at an I-5 rest area. I had used the mapping software to find it, but it grabbed a different one than the one I chose so we were a bit further south than I wanted to be. So be it . . . we’ll see how that turns out!