Following our Silver Falls Trail hike, we drove up to the Paradise Visitors Center on Mount Rainier. This part of the park was very busy, so we stopped at a picnic area just Southeast of Paradise and ate a snack, took these pictures, and then headed back down the mountain towards the Stevens Canyon park entrance and the Grove of the Patriarchs for our second hike of the day.
The Grove of the Patriarchs hike was a 1.2 mile round trip hike to a special grove of ancient trees near the Stevens Canyon Entrance of Mount Rainier National Park. The trail head has a good size parking lot with a bathroom. It was showing signs of rain at the start of our hike, but never really did rain. At about 0.5 miles into the hike, you have to cross a "shake shake" bridge, something both kids enjoyed. Once we got to the special grove, there was a loop boardwalk that went through the forest to all of the massive trees. These trees were truly amazing, including 2 firs that are over 1000 years old. As you can see from the pictures below, this is a special part of the forest, and is worth the walk to visit these giants.
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| Luke and Levi, in front of an uprooted giant. |
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| Ancient Cedar and Douglas Fir. |
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| That is a big hug. |
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| Ancient giant. |
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| Claire in front of the twin, 1000+ year old Douglas Firs. |
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| This big! |
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| Trees growing on the top of a fallen tree! |
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| Claire and Jessica marvel at the giants. |
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| Claire and Jessica on the boardwalk trail through the Ancient Grove. |
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| Platform to look into the fallen giant. |
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| Claire and Jessica carefully navigate the "shake shake" bridge. Levi and I ran across! |
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