Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington

Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington is the home of Mt. Rainier, standing at 14,410 feet, it is a sight to see.  Unfortunately, the day we were there, it was raining and foggy.  We did not get to see the mountain at all.  Check out the picture below.  There are many other beautiful things to see at Mt. Rainier National Park including waterfalls, overlooks and historical buildings.

Sunrise Visitors Center

Mt. Rainier, somewhere behind the fog

We did get this photo of Mt. Rainier in the distance, while driving toward the park the previous day.

Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Hanford, Washington Unit

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park is an unusual park because it has three units in three different states.  We have already visited the Los Alamos, New Mexico unit and there is also one in Tennessee.  Each of these sites played a significant role in developing the first atomic bomb which played a large role in ending WWII.  The Hanford Washington unit is the location of the first nuclear reactor.  It was used to produce plutonium for the tests at the Trinity site in New Mexico, where the first test bomb was detonated.  At the Hanford site, you can take a bus tour to Reactor-B, which was the first of 9 reactors to be built in the area known as the Hanford Engineer Works. This first reactor was built in only 11 months.  It is a massive wall of tubes and such.  It is quite spectacular.  The tour guides were full of interesting and useful information; many of them are former workers at the Hanford nuclear plants.  Definitely an amazing piece of history.

Entrance gate to secured area

Some of the other reactors in the distance

B Reactor, the first one built

Front panel of the reactor, it was huge!

The clock on the left is set at 10:48, the time when the reactor first went live.  The lower clock, current time.

A collection of warning signs

North Cascades National Park, Marblemount, WA

People keep asking us what our favorite place that we have seen so far.  I definitely found a new favorite in North Cascades National Park.  There are many glacial lakes that are the most beautiful color of green/blue.  There are mountains and waterfalls and rain forest.  We saw salmon spawning in the river.  We drove over a dam and hiked up behind another dam to see a waterfall.  So much diversity, so much beauty.
See for yourself some of the photos we took.  In fact, one of these is my favorite photo from the whole trip.  That is saying a lot because I have taken over 10,000 pictures. This pic just turned out so absolutely amazing.  I will post it and you can see what you think.

Diablo Lake 

The green color comes from the sun reflecting off of rock fragments in the water. The fragments come from glacial melt.

The rain forest is so cool.  The moss covers everything: rocks, trees, stumps, etc.

This is my favorite photo.  I did not alter this pic in any way.  

The black spots in this picture are salmon spawning (laying eggs) in the river.

Ladder Creek Falls Power Plant

Ladder Creek Falls

Down stream from the dam

Upstream from the dam

Crossing the Diablo dam

Washington Pass Overlook