There’s no appropriate way to segue back to vacation recaps, so let’s just go for it.

Sunrise Visitor Center is the highest point on Mount Rainier that can be reached by vehicle – 6,400 feet at the parking lot. One of our family friends was working at the gift shop this summer, so we visited her for lunch.

Since the sky was clear – rare for Rainier, we were to discover – we decided to take a short mid-day hike. (Full disclosure, we decided on a 5.6 mile loop with a 1,200 foot elevation gain.)

Halfway up, we stopped with some other hikers to watch a bear and a coyote in the valley. Despite my urging, they did not meet up and start to brawl. (No photos, because they were no more than moving specks from our height.)