This weekend we decided to attend the 1st annual Renovo camping trip. We had reservations at Ohanapecosh campground, which is located on the southeast side of Mount Rainier National Park. Terry and I had the camper loaded and left Spanaway around 1:45 on Friday afternoon. We headed south on Hwy. 7 to the Nisqually entrance of Mount Rainier National Park. There was cloud cover on the drive, but once we entered into the park, the clouds slowly started to dissipate. 
This was our first trip into the national park and the views were breathtaking. We stopped a viewpoint at Ricksecker point and took a couple pictures. From there, we continued our trip until Reflection Lakes. At the lakes, we stopped again for some photos. Finally, we made it to Ohanapecosh campground. Even with our stops, it didn’t take too long to get there. We arrived at camp and started unloading around 4:20. Marc and Jen Olson got to camp shortly before us (they actually passed us at one of the viewpoints). Our sites where right next to each other in E-loop. We were in site E005 and the Olsen’s had site E002. The Christianson’s (Scott, Holly, Jillian, Kendall and Lola) as well as Paige and Connor were already there and had their tents set up when we arrived.
Everyone congregated to our site as we were setting things up. We had a few snacks and chatted while we got things organized. Megan and Eric showed up quickly and unloaded, then left to head to her grandparent’s house for the evening since they lived nearby. After everything was unloaded and in it’s weekend home, we decided to take a quick walk down to the river. Marc, Terry and I got a little behind from the rest of the group, but eventually made it to the bridge for some quick photos.
Once back at camp, we decided to barbeque some hot dogs for dinner. Gage, Marc and Terry also got the fire going. At 9:00, we all went to the amphitheater for the evening ranger talk. The lady talked about some of the trails in the area and about the plants of Mount Rainier. The kids seemed to enjoy it. Back at camp, we got out the marshmallows and made some s’mores before heading off to bed.
On Saturday morning, we woke up early. Scott was already up with Lola when Terry and I got up. Terry made some coffee and we relaxed as everyone else slowly woke up. People slowly started waking up and coming over for their morning caffeine fax. Scott made some Chilean tea that we sampled which was actually quite good.
For breakfast, Holly cooked bacon, and then I made pancakes while Jen scrambled some eggs and Megan put out some fresh fruit. Once we had our fill of breakfast, we packed up our gear and decided to go for a hike. It was a perfect day for a hike as the sun was out, but it still wasn’t too hot.
Our first destination was Silver Falls. It was a very pretty falls about 1.2 miles from our campsite. From there, we hiked up to the Grove of the Patriarchs, which had a suspension bridge over a creek that we had to walk across one at a time. In the grove, we were able to find a little spot by the creek where the kids were able to play in the water. We relaxed there for a bit before heading back past Silver Falls on a difference trail, past some hot springs and back to camp. Overall, we were gone for about 4.5 hours and did about 5 miles of hiking.
We decided on an early dinner once we got back to our site since everyone was hungry from the hike and we didn’t really have lunch. I brought stuff for chicken fajitas and refried beans that I cooked on our large griddle and Jen put a taco salad together. It was good and definitely hit the spot after the day on the trail. The boys once again got a fire going so we all relaxed and talked around the fire.
The Christianson’s had to leave on Saturday night as they had a busy day planned for Sunday and had to get home. After they departed, we all sat around the fire and made s’mores. Terry and I both took quick showers before heading to bed.
We slept in later on Sunday than usual. Marc was up making coffee when we got up so Terry joined him while I enjoyed some hot cocoa. For breakfast, I cooked the leftover pancake batter and warmed up some tortillas, while Jen scrambled eggs with ham and bell peppers for breakfast burritos. After we were done eating, we slowly started packing up our gear. Zeus and Roxy were cute playing with each other as we were packing. I never would have thought that Zeus’s girlfriend would be a pit bull. It was hard leaving as we had such a nice weekend.
We ended up leaving camp a little after 1:00. On the way home, we stopped at Box Canyon and walked the 0.5-mile loop. After that we drove through Paradise before heading down the mountain. We also stopped at Narada Falls and walked down to the viewpoint there. It was pretty and from the viewpoint we got a little wet from the spray of the waterfall. Then, we got back into the camper and headed home. Even with our stops, we made it home around 4:30. It’s amazing to see such beauty so close to home.
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