OK, this is probably Sheri’s favorite National park. There are other tall mountains, but this one is tall right from sea-level up to the 14,000+’ peak. That is quite different than a 14,000′ peak when you are in high country like Montana. We left the RV in its camp in Tacoma and tent camped out of the truck in the national park. Fortunately, there are two campgrounds that are FCFS, remote(ish), and beautiful. We got lucky and got a spot, but COVID was keeping the tree-guys from clearing dead tress from more than half the sites, so the rangers closed them. Kind of ridiculous when you walked around and actually looked at what passed for a Hazard Tree. I’m not on a crusade against the “nanny state,” but things like this could push me there. There are two big visitor centers. We preferred Sunrise, but Paradise was really just as awesome. It was the middle of the summer and we hiked up above the tree line and well into the snow pack to get to the overlook in Paradise. At Sunrise it was lots of ridgeline hikes with HUGE views. There are lots of other parts of the park, but those are the big draws. Some folks loved the tall trees in the grove of the patriarchs. That is an easily accessible hike but, come on, it’s all about altitude at this place.
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