The Many Moods of the Mountain

My husband and I have lived for many years with a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier out our windows. Although we have gotten used to it, we never tire of taking another look. "The mountain," as everyone living in this area calls it, is always impressive (when the rain stops long enough for us to see it). But it rarely looks the same twice. It's surprisingly versatile in its costume: sporting a new coat of fresh snow or stripped down to the bare essentials of rock and glacier; hat-less or wearing that strange stack of pancake clouds on its head; silhouetted against a sunrise or reflecting the alpenglow of a pink sunset; standing out stark against a deep, blue sky or peeking through a misty shroud. Sometimes the elements combine for more unusual effects. Occasionally, when conditions are just right at dawn, the sun projects the inverted shadow of the mountain against the underside of the clouds above. Spectacular. At other times, evening fog settles into the valley in front of the mountain creating the illusion of a lovely lake (as above). The show doesn't last long, so we keep our cameras handy. Even after all these years, I still marvel at the mountain's ever-changing beauty.