Tuesday - Mt. Rainier and the Monorail

On Tuesday, the kids and I walked onto the ferry for another fun filled day in Seattle!  You can tell that the kids are already becoming seasoned ferry passengers.  No more exploring the boat.  Just a cool and casual pose against the railing.

"The mountains are out today" is a local phrase referring to the fact that it is sunny and clear enough to be able to see the distant mountains and/or dormant volcanoes that surround the Seattle area.  The picture above is of Mt. Rainier, a dormant volcano.  It is a really impressive mountain!  At home in the Mountain West of Utah, I live next to Mt. Timpanogos, with a summit elevation of 11,749 ft (which I have climbed to the top of).  However, the base elevation is at around 4,500 ft.  Now, Mt. Rainier has a summit elevation of 14, 411 ft!  As you can tell from the picture, the base elevation is pretty close to sea level (around 1,000 ft), making it a MUCH bigger mountain than Mt. Timpanogos.  Here is a blurb from Wikipedia...

Mount Rainier, or Mount Tahoma, as it is traditionally called, is a large active stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano) in Pierce County, Washington, USA, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle. It towers over the Cascade Range as the most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and Cascade Volcanic Arc at 14,411 feet (4,392 m). It is the highest mountain in Washington and the Cascade Range.

The mountain and the surrounding area are protected within Mount Rainier National Park. With 26 major glaciers and 36 square miles (93 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each over 1,000 feet (300 m) in diameter with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed the world's largest volcanic glacier cave network within the ice-filled craters. A small crater lake about 130 by 30 feet (40 by 9.1 m) in size and 16 feet (5 m) deep, the highest in North America with a surface elevation of 14,203 feet (4,329 m), occupies the lowest portion of the west crater below more than 100 feet (30 m) of ice and is accessible only via the caves.

Mount Rainier has a topographic prominence of 13,211 feet (4,027 m), greater than that of K2 (13,189 feet (4,020 m)). On clear days it dominates the southeastern horizon in most of the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area to such an extent that residents sometimes refer to it simply as "the Mountain." On days of exceptional clarity, it can also be seen from as far away as Portland, Oregon, and Victoria, British Columbia.

Pretty wild!

We walked 8 blocks from the waterfront to Westlake Center, an urban shopping district where the Monorail station is located.

The Monorail is a relic of the 1962 World Expo.  It was originally built to be a temporary 'futuristic' mode of transport for the millions of Expo visitors.  However, when it continued to run at a profit, it was left in place.  Now it is a great way to get between uptown and downtown districts quickly and cheaply, at only $4.00 for a round trip ticket!  Here is the Monorail website for those of you who want to know more about it...  http://www.seattlemonorail.com/

The Monorail takes passengers to the Seattle Center.  This was our destination, since the Pacific Science Center is located at Seattle Center, as is the Space Needle.  More on the Science Center in another post.