Crystal Mountain

Guys, if you are about to propose to your girlfriend or couples, if you need a getaway place to get married...I've found it!  The breathtaking views from Crystal Mountain were so stunning today, a mostly clear day, that I can only imagine how beautiful the scene would be for a proposal or wedding pictures!  In fact, I don't have to imagine the wedding scenario too hard since I saw at least three wedding parties and two weddings in progress (one at a time, of course).

I should start at the beginning.  Rich had a three day weekend this week and we thought we should take a little weekend getaway.  Sadly, so did everyone else on our side of the state and they had thought of it first (the probably know their schedules more than two weeks in advance!) so all hotels and campgrounds were booked solid.  We knew it was going to be hot so I spent all day on Friday and part of Thursday, researching places we could go to the beach.  I really, really wanted to go swimming!  I checked lake after lake after bay after ocean.  Nothing was available.  I had the added trouble of needing a dog-friendly place because our regular dog sitter has had surgery and is unavailable for a few weeks.  One of the last places I discovered was called Crystal Mountain.  It was hard to distinguish what this place was, exactly.  I could tell it was near Mount Rainier (a definite plus, as any of you who have read pretty much any of my posts know, since I'm obsessed with that mountain!) and that there was some kind of gondola...and not much else!  I really can't say why I was so attracted to the gondola.  Ever since being a very young child and going to Riverside Park where there was a giant ball on a wire that would take you from one side of the park to the other (saving so many steps on those long hot days!), I have been terrified of these things.  And, yet, whenever there is a gondola or a tram, I sign us up!  Actually, I think what attracted me most was that Crystal Mountain was on all the dog-friendly lists of places to visit and that included the gondola.  Ruby and Otis on a gondola ride?  They'd love it!

It turns out that Crystal Mountain is a ski resort.  There are several lodges on site and in the summer they are open for hikers.  We arrived in the early afternoon and hit the gondola.  As we waited in line, Otis would occasionally stick his head through the metal barrier and surprise some lucky man in shorts with a little kiss on his calf.  He's so crafty that Rich and I never noticed until it was too late.  Luckily, the men in question both thought it was hilarious and didn't mind.  Other than that, and a few stray barks at the other dogs waiting in line to board the gondola, their first experience waiting in line for a gondola was handled expertly, as though they had waited in many such lines during their short lives!  The closer we got to boarding, the more we realized with horror that we weren't going to have our own car and we were about to subject strangers to the dogs' first gondola ride...not what we had in mind, at all!  And, worse still, the gondola doesn't stop moving.  No, you have to jump in as it swings through the boarding area.  My stomach was in knots.  How would this go?  Would they get on?  Should I try to board and carry Ruby?  I HATE gondolas, why did I think this was a good plan?  Was I about to plummet to my death?!  Luckily, these cheery thoughts distracted me until I was suddenly settled on the bench, with Ruby in my arms, being hoisted backwards up a mountain and facing three strangers.  They happened to be the nice kind of strangers who think our dogs are adorable and Ruby and Otis seemed content to have them continue to believe that they were adorable and both just rested passively in our arms.  In fact, the couple across from us even offered to take our picture!  (Following proper etiquette, we took their picture in return).  

Waiting in line and the bars that Otis used to his kissing advantage.

Still waiting in line...and glad it was shady!

Our first clear view of the gondola.

Ruby rested in my arms the whole way.

A family picture with Otis blowing kisses to the man in the opposite corner and wishing they we real kisses.

I was forced to hold it together since I was stranded with these other people and I even managed to look at the view and enjoy the ride up.  The very best part was at the last second before we reached the top when I glanced over my shoulder and saw my good friend, Mount Rainier, RIGHT THERE, staring back at me.  So exciting!  We exited the gondola car fairly gracefully and were magnetically drawn straight to the scary ledge (mothers shouldn't bring their children there, ever!  And other people's children, whether they are 3 or 30 shouldn't go either...I had to look away from many of them as they clambered MUCH to close to the un-guarded edge!) to see the beautiful mountain.  I was planning on warning people not to look at the pictures if they wanted a good surprise, but I didn't do a very good job taking them (despite my lesson on aperture during the cruise and much to my EXTREME disappointment on arriving home!) so feel free to look.  You won't spoil anything!

I zoomed OUT on this, it was much closer in real life but I wanted more details.

A better view of the river flowing off the mountain.

Being the good little Pacific Northwesterners that we are, both Rich and I were wearing our Vibrams for our "hike".  It turned out that unless you wanted to hike down a ski trail...and then back up...there wasn't much hiking to do.  That was all right.  We saw a nice uphill trek into some trees and figured the view would be lovely so off we went.  We passed a wedding ceremony in progress, and discussed the merits of their choice.  Not private, obviously, since there we were discussing the merits of their choice, excellent photographs but the ground was so dry and dusty that that girl better not have any hope of doing anything with that dress other than throwing it out!  The wedding parties did get front of the line gondola privileges, though, so I'm sure that was nice for them since most of us waited about thirty minutes to get up and about forty minutes to get back down.  But I digress.  The walk we took was very dusty and the rocks were sharp and plentiful.  The payout of the view at the top was ok, but nothing we couldn't have seen from down below.  Add that to my needing to stop every five feet or so to take pictures, get the dogs water, or get myself water...and not much walk was had! :)  Oh well, we managed to take up about two hours of view-catching before the ride back down.  

Some wildflowers and the view opposite of Mount Rainier.

A great family picture...we asked the guy to yell "TREAT!" before he took it and it worked!

The view from the top of the walk.  Mt St. Helens is over there but she was hard to capture.

Resting after the somewhat strenuous walk.

Us in front of what looks like a fake background!

Again, luck was with us, after our forty minute wait in the gondola ride.  (Otis was very tired and would often lie down on the jagged stones and would have happily let us drag him along on his belly, if we hadn't pulled up him by his harness straps and made him walk every few minutes.  Ruby, on the other hand, was manically trying to throw herself off the scary cliff, probably after the very fat chipmunks that kept taunting her along the way.)

I didn't get him lying down but you can imagine it was the next step!

Prowling under the tree so I won't catch her trying to hop off the cliff!

See that little fat chipmunk?  What a tease!

Anyway, luck was with us.  We had two very nice couples in the gondola on the ride back down who told us about their various cats and dogs and laughed at how funny the dogs were riding along like they were humans.  They went so far as to ask us if we had trained them ourselves.  I said "Oh yes, we "trained" them ourselves..."  and conveniently left out the truth that they were so tired from hiking around in the sun, they would have done just about anything to sit quietly and rest, having nothing to do with their trained-ness!

Otis, happy to be reclining in a lap, finally!!

Ruby, sitting next to me on the bench like a regular little person!

Rich explaining to the crowd what kind of dogs we have and no, Otis never barks and sheds all the time and yes, Ruby barks all the time and never sheds...They have a cavalier/poodle mix that barks all the time but never sheds (in case you were wondering!)

Once we hit the car and had the requisite water break for the dogs and snack and water break for the humans, we headed into Rainier National Park to drive around the base of the mountain to the other side to come back home.  We have only been over there twice before and it was cloudy for the approach each time.  Imagine my happy surprise when I managed to find two stunning views (sadly, I found them as we were whizzing by them in the car and happily, my husband is very understanding about these things and is willing to turn around twice to get back there so I can take the pictures!) that I HAD to have pictures of.  (Bad grammar, I know!)  And I didn't ruin those pictures so I had something to be happy about!

The view from the road.

The requisite "heads and a background" shot.

Tall grass...and a mountain... 

The view from the second turn around spot. It looked more like a painting as it got dark.

I think this on canvas would be fun!

You know I couldn't pass these two up!

Taking a break to smell the flowers!

And, as always, this is how we know it was a successful day (this is AFTER they split a hamburger patty from Burger King because we forgot to bring their kibble.  They didn't seem to mind...)!