The Meadows of Mount Rainier

"Discover Wildflowers" the National Park Service web site for Mount Rainier commanded and so we did.  On a day when we wondered if the smoke from wildfires in British Columbia would obscure our view of the mountain itself, we looked down at our feet as we hiked through subalpine meadows

There was a profusion of wildflowers to see.

Purple Phlox

Penstemon

Alpine Yellow Fleabane

Alpine Asters

Shrubby Penstemon and Indian Paintbrush

Penstemon and Yellow Wall Lettuce

I couldn't identify the wildflowers in the next two photos, but they were beautiful, too.

Almost everywhere you looked, there was a picture-perfect display.

And presiding over it all at 14,400 feet was glaciated Mount Rainier just as John Muir had promised, "wholly unveiled, awful in bulk and majesty."

  Not even the wildfires' smoke could shroud it.