That morning we did some family pictures in Cochrane Park, similar to what we did two years ago, but this time we had to take our own pictures. Jenna had some family stuff to do and we waited too long to ask her. We all had breakfast before we left the house. The French toast, sausage and fruit all hit the spot. When we got to the park, I had to bust out the tripod and remember how to use the self timer on mom's camera. When you don't use it as often you forget how to use it. It was chilly and everyone didn't have a ton of patience since my siblings and their significant others were wanting to hit the road towards home. We got a few of each group, a couple of all of us together and some specialty shots. I thought based on what we had we did a good job.
As soon as 11 a.m. hit, everyone was saying their goodbyes and we all left. Ben and I jumped into the Escape and headed towards Safeway for some food to bring with us. Ben also needed some coffee since he just got off shift that morning at 7:30. He was dragging a bit but wanted a fun day off outside. We grabbed some sandwiches, chips and drinks, and I couldn't help myself...I had to get my maple bar on. Ben grabbed an éclair. We paid and topped off with gas before we left town. The further east we got, the gas got more expensive in the smaller towns.
We headed east on Hwy 507 until we reached McKenna at the Roy Y. We took the 702 to the Eatonville Cut Off. Once through Eatonville, we took the Alder Cut Off to Hwy 7 near the east side of Alder Lake. I was amazed how much more water was in the reservoir than the previous visit to the area less than two months ago. Since then, we've had a lot of rain especially at the beginning of November. We continued past the junction of Hwy 7 that took you to Hwy 12, we wrapped around and followed the 706 to Ashford which ultimately turned into Paradise Road once you got into the National Park.
We got to the entrance and paid our $20 fee and followed everyone else up the windy road. We passed Longmier and continued on. We were here with grandma and mom two summers ago. We really weren't going to miss anything. There was a little snow on the ground here. We followed the road up to a really popular viewpoint with lots of cars and we managed to find a spot, park and change into some warmer clothes. I put my base layers on, then my secondary layers then my snow paints, vest and boots. I was good to go now. We took many pictures from various spots along this pullout. You could drive all the way up when there isn't snow on the ground but when there is you have to walk.
We spent a good hour at this spot before it was time to head up to Paradise. When we got there we had to park in the overflow parking lot and walk up to the lodge. I brought our lunch with us and decided to eat it with the view of the mountain. Ben got in trouble by the park rangers for trying to get a picture of one of the Gray Jay's sitting in his hand. The tomato was the decoy and too heavy for the bird to steal it. The ranger explained that feeding the wildlife was illegal and he let Ben off with a warning. I told him I just couldn't take him anywhere! Haha.
I took a couple shots of the mountain from here and Ben got out the GoPro and took a few shots of both of us and the mountain. Man, it was a pretty day!
We walked back to the Escape and got our sleds for some sledding. I haven't been sledding in a very long time. Last year we tried to on Snoqualmie Pass on the way to Spokane and couldn't because there wasn't any snow.
We had a blast but because of the altitude and walking up the hills exhausted us. We got a few pictures and videos. Ben ended up exploding his sled and then continued to tear it into pieces.
We stopped one more time at a closed rest area because Ben had to get out of his snow pants and I had to pee really bad. For some reason I didn't have any toilet paper or wipies and I had to use my clean pair of extra socks. Oh well they wash. We both got back into the Escape and left the park until next time. Ben fell asleep for a while and I stopped one more time for Rainier100 2: Ashford (GC63NCK) and it was found right next to a pottery store along the road. I found it quickly, signed our names and put it back. That was all for the day until the one in Elbe gets checked by the cache owner.
From there, it took us an hour to get home driving the same route as we did coming to the mountain. We both were so tired and I wanted to get warm. Mom made some dinner but I had some turkey and jello. Then later on we had some popcorn while we watched some episodes of How I Met Your Mother. It got late and he had to go home. We said our goodbyes and went to bed.
Next Adventure: Epic Wind, Rain and Thunderstorms in December
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