Mt. Rainier Park: Carbon River

In fall of 2006, our family discovered the Carbon River area of Mt. Rainier National Park.  It is one of the only a couple areas of the  park that is open year round.  It is 30 minutes from the house and has numerous trails to explore.   There are rain forest trails as well as river frontage trails.  Some easy and some strenuous.  Some that end abruptly and some that hook up to other trails and go on forever.  Something for everyone including a tent and RV campground overlooking the river that we would LOVE to stay at but we cannot  because it's closed.

Samuel had many good days that fall so we explored and enjoyed this area quite a bit.  We cringe a little remembering the steep uphill hikes we took Anna on and she was only 2.5 years old at the time.  She was quite the trooper and someone always had a hold of her hand.   Samuel just loved every minute of it.

This area became a place of "escape" for us at a time when it felt like we were banging our heads against the wall with Samuel's medical team.  In this place, we could forget.  He could forget.  He could be a normal boy and we could be a normal family.  It was as if this was a sacred ground for us.

Sadly, in November of 2006, we had many violent storms that resulted in epic flooding and the Carbon River area which lies very low, was severely damaged.  A five mile stretch of road was washed away by the river in several places and has remained closed to car traffic for the last 4.5 years.

Above is the flooding that happened just down the hill from our house that year.  This is the creek (well over it's banks) in the mini park where the kids like to swim in the summer; where Samuel liked to stick fight the bamboo plants and play on the toys.  This shares a parking lot with the volunteer fire station and the whole parking lot was flooded out.  This is the same fire station where we built the giant snow man in 2008 for reference.  Just replace the snow with multiple inches of water and you get the idea.  We live two minutes away from here by foot.

Anyway, while the five mile stretch of Carbon River road between the park entrance and the campground was closed to cars, it has been open to foot or bike traffic.  The first trail however, is now a three mile hike to get to because you cannot drive to it.   The next few trails are between miles three and five.  The walk in adds so much more time and distance to any of the hikes that unless you have the whole day, and are in great shape, it's just not worth it to us so we haven't returned.  That, and the thought of returning to this "sacred ground" minus Samuel was a bitter pill to swallow for a time.

Today all of that changed.  We returned to see the damage for ourselves.  We returned to see it for Samuel too.  We thought this would be a good "break-in for the season" hike for us since the original road slopes upward gently but is NOT a hard walk at all and we haven't hiked since last summer so...  Daniel expressed interest in going hiking with us and so he came along. (usually Mark and I go alone these days - cuts down on the whining)  Of course, the deal was that if he spent the whole walk complaining, he wasn't coming again because hiking is "our adult time together."  And we enjoy it!

The entrance to the park has a small parking lot so we arrived early and got to walking.   At first the road seemed fine, just narrow but it was narrow before and almost boring.  Sure, there were trees down alongside and a few messes here and there, but nothing big.  We could have drove the first mile easy.  I thought we hit the jackpot by finding an unmarked trail. It started out pretty level but quickly went steeply uphill and turned into what I like to call a "Dear trail."  (No, I didn't mean deer though it can apply)  A "Dear trail" is one that has several of these traits: narrow, muddy, slippery, full of tree roots (to trip me), and always has a cliff on one side.  About every five steps, I stop and say, "Dear!  This is too narrow.  This is too slick.  How am I going to get back down this? I'm going to fall."  Hence, this trail became a "Dear trail" and we ended up turning around much to Daniel's delight. He was hardly keeping up with us on the road, but  as soon as we started walking straight up, he went into full fledged whiny mode.
 
We weren't back on the road walking more than five minutes before we saw why it's closed.



This is supposed to be the road.



The road has been part of the river bed.



Water that should not be here.

Taking a break waiting for Daniel to catch up.  Look at the size of this stump!

No tree across water gets any peace with these two around.

Love this one!  By the way, Daniel is several inches taller than me now and he thinks that is SO cool.

We walked about three hours total and we did not make it to the first trail but we did take that "Dear trail" detour so we probably would have made if had we not done that.  However, it wouldn't have mattered because Daniel was done way before we ever stopped for lunch.

A little fire for ambiance. 

Right on the river no less.  So pretty and soothing.

Okay, I think this picture is hilarious.

The view from where we ate.

My beloved carrying the emergency stick he had to make me since we forgot to pack mine.  It wasn't really needed except for the "Dear trail" where I realized I am severely handicapped without one.

 

The walk felt good.  It was nice to finally have a warm day and be able to come back here.  There was no drama except that which Daniel brought.  We're not done with this place (though we will NOT bring Daniel hiking again - maybe next year - though his assessment of this trek was that it was "stupid and boring" so maybe not.)  I'd like to get to the Green Lake Trail (at mile 3) which we did most of as a complete family, but had to cut short because Samuel was tired.  Back then, a hike over two miles was a long walk.  It's about 1.8 miles to the lake if you can park at the trail head and back then we figure we went a bit over a mile before turning back.  There was a giant waterfall about halfway up where we stopped to get Samuel water.  He was wilting terribly and once rehydrated with this glorious mountain water, he perked right up and nearly ran the whole way down.  It was really something special.   These days, 5-6 miles seems to be Mark and my limit so we will need to press on a little more this year to be able to get to this trail and complete it.  I'd like to sit in that spot by the waterfall and drink some of that water in remembrance of Samuel.  After that, I'd like to press on that last little bit to the lake which is supposed to be beautiful.  Maybe Samuel left a treasure there that we will stumble upon.  I don't put anything past him.