We got an earlier start and drove up to Paradise Visitor Center while parkingwas still available. Paradise is in the clouds this morning. We hadbreakfast on the tailgate and then went into the Visitor’s Center. TheHenry Jackson Memorial Visitor Center was built in 1964 and was very innovativedesign, but not very energy efficient. The round design is very cool,allowing for great viewing of the area, but the roofs were not built for the15-20 feet of snow it gets each year. The heaters built into the roof tomelt snow are not very efficient, use a lot of diesel fuel to run and they arevery expensive to repair. They are building a new Visitor Center to beopened in 2008.
Rainier has his head in the clouds again today. It’s a rainy andovercast day that this area is known for, so we head out.
We did a lot of driving today heading for the Washington coast and OlympicNational Park. Another forest service road acted as camp for the night.