Long Road Trip: Lavender & Mount Rainier National Park

We toured several Lavender Farms around Sequim, WA. My favorite was the Purple Haze Lavender Farm. It's a Harvest Host site - we didn't have time to stay overnight but if you are camping with HH this place looked fantastic.

Lavender Fields

pastel on black paper

Then we stopped one night at the Paradise Wellness Farm south of Tacoma. Found it on Hipcamp.com (thanks Debby). It was an interesting spot with organic vegetable and flower gardens, mushrooms and hemp, beehives, farm dogs, 3 large yurts, a meditation pond and a pet cow named Bessy. There was lots for me to paint here, but a little too far from Rainier to stay longer.

Diane's Gladiolus with Rainier shining bright in the background

pastel

3 large yurts on the property for rent through Air BnB

Our spot for the night

Saturday morning in Rainier NP we found a walkup spot at Cougar Rock CG and stayed 2 nights. I met Debby to paint the next day and picked Ed (uh, Meriwether) up from a 44 mile bike ride across the park. It was so nice to see Debby - it's so much more fun to paint with a buddy and catchup on her travels.

Mt Rainier National Park

At the Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center

I'm having a serious quiet moment at the top of this hike.

Then a squirrel put his little paws on my leg begging for food,

I jumped and likely made a screeching noise as he ran across my lap.

Curses to those people that feed squirrels in National Parks, really.