Back to Mt. Rainier

Sunset and clouds on Mt. Rainier

 It takes about 3 hours to get from my house to Paradise, on the 5000 foot level of Mt. Rainier.  I dashed down there yesterday hoping to get some shots of wildflowers, which so far are about 6 weeks behind their normal bloom schedule. Well, after hiking up to my favorite meadow, I found the flowers just emerging from under the snow. If they bloom at all this year, it will be a miracle.

Driving home, I made a short detour to have a look at the Greenwater River just northeast of the volcano. There are few gem quality rocks on the mountain itself: too young and too active. But the volcano we see today rose through much older volcanics, many of which produce large quantities of agate and jasper. There are a couple of well-known areas for agate in the hills above the Greenwater, but today I decided to just poke around the riverbed to see what was washing down from the surrounding watershed.

In an hour or so I had a bag full of small agates, some jasper and even a nice piece of petrified wood.  But the find of the day was this good-sized multi-colored agate which I pried out of the riverbed. I haven't decided what to do with it yet - it seems criminal to whack it with my sledgehammer and run the risk of it shattering, so I may wait and cut it open - or polish the whole thing with the hope that it will reveal some nice patterns.

Agate from Greenwater River