With the start of the new academic year, Radiology has been keeping me quite busy over the past couple of months.  However, I wanted to make at least one trip to Mt. Rainier National Park this summer.  I recently read in the local paper the wildflowers were peaking late this year at Paradise.  So I headed out this afternoon with a friend to see what we could find.  We were not disappointed.  The ranger suggested the Myrtle Falls trail, an easy 1 mile jaunt from Paradise Visitor’s center.  We arrived late in the afternoon and witnessed fields of lush lupines and beautiful light on the Tatoosh mountain range.  Mt. Rainier was constantly playing hide and seek with the clouds, but we did manage to get a few glimpses of her before dark.  The opening image gives you an idea of how wonderful the lupines are up there.  If you haven’t already, I highly recommend a trip to Mt. Rainier before these beauties fade away.  Below are a few more shots from the trip.  I hope you enjoy them, and please feel free to leave comments.

This last images is of a Ptarmigan (AKA Partridge) which crossed our path: