My God, it's full of flies..

This is likely going to be a long post, so pull up a comfy chair and some popcorn.
Yesterday we decided to take a full day out from work (well it's a Saturday) and head over the Mt Rainier national park, with a view of seeing just how big that thing really is. It's 2 hours from here and always looks huge. By 1 hour into the journey driving through Emunclaw (and being distracted by a cheerleader car wash... yes, cheerleaders wash your car for you!), it was starting to look bigger and bigger. My sense of scale was beginning to struggle!

After taking a few wrong turns and finally arriving at Sunrise Visitors Centre, we had the most breathtaking views. I have never, in my whole life seen something as huge and awesome as that Mountain. After about 10 minutes I'd lost words and resorted to just vowel sounds.

And yes, it's true.. we did a lot of walking, we actually climbed from 6100ft where the visitors centre is to 7194ft; the top of Mount Burroughs. Views from there were even more staggering.. the sheer scale of the place still confuses the hell out of me. Rainier looked so close from up there.. but closer inspection of its lower slopes revealed distant forests amongst streams, rivers and of course the massive glacier systems. Only real comedy point was strange a vagrant in the restaurant with a GIGANTIC bag of blueberries. Oh and the lunatic driver running 3 people off the road by driving very very close and waiting until they swerved out of our way to the hard shoulder. So between us we can terrify old men with disabilities, and traumatise american motorists! Hurrah!

If you're confused about the title, the mountain is covered with flies.. big flies.. with nasty sharp pointy teeth. Everywhere!

My own words are never going to be enough for describing this. So.. here's a selection of photos wot I did take!