Emmons Glacier is just to the right of the "Eskimo figure" (use your imagination). I wish we could have had cloud cover or even a red boat in the lake, but perhaps this is the best mirror reflection I could get. No boats because the lake is off limits. No clouds because it was 98 degrees. The 98 rose to 104, and it was really taxing on the heart - even with water - because some of the trails are 8 miles (from lodge to Reflection Lake) and climb 4,000 feet while our longest was 10 miles (Skyline Trail), and we were just plain stupid to try it with insufficient water.
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This Hoary Marmot (a member of the squirrel family and also known as "Whistling Pigs") was in a field at about 8,500 feet at Mt. Rainier. He was too busy feeding to care about us, although his feeding on the go took us on a half-mile trek around the "field." Not much except that it was 98° and the altitude started to getting to us. We only got 30 shots of this big guy (a male and about 25 pounds), a larger marmot than Yellow-bellied Marmots we encountered in Yellowstone and Banff.
Tags: Hoardy Marmot Mt. Rainier NP Washington State Canon SX40 or SX50 DailyNature-TNC13 DailyNature-TNC14 North America NA Ethan Winning E. A. Winning
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Emmons glacier on Mt. Rainier in Rainier National Park, Washington. At least I think it's Emmons. At least I think it's Emmons. I do know that this is at 8,000 feet because that's when my wife got hit by altitude sickness and we had to come back down. I should have known before we left. It was already in the 90s (unusual for Rainier), and my wife had been warning me to take water, drink water, pass water, and whatever else you can do with water, and she's the one who comes close to fainting. Of course, she was right and I was well on my way to all the problems of 2015 when I became dehydrated. That's no kind of poetic justice.
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We started out early in the morning, but by noon, the temperature had reached 98° and at 8,000 feet the sun was bearing down on us. Feeling a little weak, we came off the trail and back to the lodge as quickly as possible. Who knew that Mt. Rainier had temperatures that got that high? We'd been there three times, and this was a first.
Tags: Nisqually Glacier Trail Mt. Rainier National Park Washington Landscape DailyNature-TNC14
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You may know my story of the nemesis bird, the Belted Kingfisher. Well, this one parallels the BK except that I had exceptional luck in a three day period at Mt. Rainier, and there's a reason which I actually came out with one great (see next) image, and two more than acceptable: Belted kingfishers eat fish, and dive. I can't offer a BK a fish and have him hop over an take it.
The Steller's Jays - especially in national parks (Rainier, Sequoia, Yosemite, Kings Canyon in particular) - are jays. Jays are partial to human handouts and are extreme opportunists. They will swoop in, grab anything from a piece of bread to a grape or potato stick, and fly off with it to the innards of any pine, redwood, or worse, scrub oak where they are inaccessible.
Will I stop trying? No. There's always a better perch, better light, and the sheer enjoyment of the chase and driving Tom crazy. But this is the last one, Tom. I can't rub it in any more. Besides, this one was almost too close and was just curious about, not a piece of food, but a UV filter that I had lying on the table. Or, he was ready for his closeup Mr. Demille.
Tags: Steller's Jay Mt. Rainier NP Jays Ethan Winning E. A. Birds DailyNature-TNC13 DailyNature-TNC14 North Avian
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