Day 23 - Friday 7/22/2005 -  White River...

It's actually nice for a change to "just be driving" and have nowhere to be and nothing to do.  The trip has been an enjoyable mix of "things to do" and "braindead time".  We are on the way to Mt. Rainier today, and the only issue may be that it's very cloudy with intermittent downpours.  We headed north through Yakima and cut over to Highway 12 which runs to the east side of Rainier.  We were not able to catch a glimpse of the mountain due to the clouds, but it was easy to see where it was - it was the big lump creating most of the clouds.  Once we hit the park boundary, we headed north and setup camp at one of the last sites available in White River.

White River is beautiful, and I probably raved on about it last year.  The river is actually gray - the color coming from the grinding and powdering of rocks under the Emmons Glacier.  Standing near the river, we watched the mountain peek through the clouds, only to hide again after a few minutes.  What little we were able to see was extremely white and glossy in the late day sun.  The mountain is HUGE, and at 14,411 feet has over 25 glaciers and supports over 1 cubic mile of ice and snow.  

As a distraction, we opted to sit in the pitch-black campground and watch John Carpenter's "Vampires" on DVD.  Hopefully tomorrow will clear and we will be able to see the mountain.