Sea level to 7000 feet

Yesterday Barb and I were riding a ferry at sea level.

Today (after driving to 6400 feet at Sunrise on Mount Rainier) we hiked to Dege Peak which is over 7000 feet above sea level:

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This is the hike we attempted during Memorial Day Weekend.

The views were surreal.

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In this picture, taken with my cell phone, the peak of Mount Rainier is a little over eight miles away. It is difficult to capture just how huge and dominating the mountain is. The Sunrise parking lot, visible near the extreme center right of the picture is about 1.5 miles away.

The view in other directions was nice too:

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Parts of the trail were pretty cool too. Most of the hike was near or on top of a ridge:WP_20150705_13_22_29_Pro__highres

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Before we hiked to Dege Peak we visited Berkley Park to see the wild flowers which were in bloom. We were a little disappointed. It wasn’t as expansive and colorful as we expected:

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The trail and the views were pretty cool though:

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We are glad we went but probably wouldn’t do that again. Dege Peak was much more memorable.

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9 thoughts on “Sea level to 7000 feet

  1. I wonder if the low yield of wild flowers is due to our exceptionally dry season this year. That seems very sparse compared to pictures I’ve seen elsewhere.

    • I avoid California as much as practical because of the repressive government. The Yosemite visit was when we were visiting Barb’s daughter just before she left for Ecuador.

      I was open carrying most of the time at Mount Rainier. When I can legally carry my STI with 18 round magazines in California parks I’ll reconsider. But that mileage and elevation gain is a more than Barb and I could handle (Barb says, “I could suggest a lot of hikes for her too!”).

      Thanks for the suggestion.

      • I’m not into hiking but I always thought it was interesting that you could just walk to the top of Mount Whitney and didn’t need any mountain climbing skills. The view at the top is spectacular.

  2. Nice photos! Try Spray Park, sometime. Also great views, and acres of flowers.

  3. Pierce County has the highest elevation differential of any county in the lower 48 (and perhaps Alaska, too, but I’m not sure about that.)

    Sea level to 14,410 feet.

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