Eunice Lake Hike

We went for a hike last Sunday to Eunice Lake within Mt. Rainier National Park. It's in the northwest corner of the park. From the trailhead, the lake is 1.9 miles one-way. Tolmie Lookout is another .9 miles where there's an awesome view of Mt. Rainier. We made it to Eunice Lake and started to continue on up to the lookout but it started to rain so we turned back.

There was no way to know if it was going to just sprinkle for a few minutes or turn into a downpour. Since we had the baby with us, we played it safe. We'll have to go back another time and complete the mission! Brian and I estimated we hiked about 4.5 miles total. This was the first real hike for the Os and they both did really well. Owen didn't complain at all. Oliver did have some trouble with his little leg toward the end so we were sort of glad we didn't go to the peak.

Aside from Oliver's leg hurting, we only had one mishap (if you don't count a wrong turn getting to the park) -- a record for the Watkins in Washington! The water container we put in Oliver's pack leaked all over his sweater. Bah! All 32 ounces of it. The good news was that the sweater absorbed nearly all the water so Oliver stayed dry. The bad news was that Oliver had nothing to keep him warm if/when he got cold. Being the devoted mother I am, I let him wear my fleece pull-over. He looked so funny in it with the sleeves hanging down to his knees. Give him a couple of years though, right?

I had two favorite moments. One was when Owen started singing, "We live in a beautiful world" by Coldplay. It was sweet and cool at the same time. Oliver, whose brain is always on overdrive, informed me that a quarter of two miles is half a mile. I doubt I even knew what a quarter of anything was at 6 years old!

And bless Elliott's little heart... he was an absolute angel the whole day. We left the house around 9:30am and didn't get back until around 6pm. He went from his car seat to the baby backpack and back into the car seat without complaint. I think it was about 5:30pm that he signed "all done" in the car and growled a little to let us know he had had it. We are lucky that he is so easy-going.

Oliver kept doing weird hiker-statue poses. Owen joined in for this one.

The crazy hair is a result of smearing DEET all over the boys' heads to keep the mosquitoes off.

Wildflowers next to the lake.

A peek-a-boo of Mt. Rainier from Eunice Lake.

We made it!

Eunice Lake