Despite the failed attempt to hike in Mt. Rainier NP and the bad weather that prevented us from taking even a short glimpse at Mt. Rainier, we still enjoyed our short visit to the park a lot. Just driving through the park we could tell that the place must look amazing under better weather circumstances, especially if one is lucky enough to be there when wildflowers bloom. I believe in "typical" years the flowers bloom in August, but this year it will likely take place in late September, or maybe even October. We will try to visit Mt. Rainier NP then, so maybe I will post an update later in the year.
The park altogether is beautiful, its most spectacular feature is the abundance of waterfalls. The most easily accessible, and therefore, the most popular, are the
Narada Falls. They are located just a few yards off the central road passing through the park. As Anil pointed out,
Narada is the name of one of the Hindu gods/sages, so we were a bit surprised to see a waterfall with such a name in the US.
The waterfall is quite spectacular as it drops 168 feet (51 m) down a nearly sheer cliff:
