THREE HIKING SISTERS, we love to hike together, but we don't all live in the same state. Sometimes it is only two of us, and sometimes we hike with others. This is a record of some of our hikes.
We drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier National Park to hike the Nisqually Vista Trail, 1.2 miles with 200 ft of overall gain. View of Mt Rainier from the lower parking lot.
The trail is paved and goes through both meadows and forest.
When we reached the loop part of the trail we went counterclockwise. Some views through the trees.
Main view along the loop
zoom of the end of the Nisqually Glacier
Another peekaboo view of Mt Rainier
Our second hike at Angel Peak Scenic Area was the 1.2 mile round trip Castle Rock Trail. View of a distant Castle Rock across the badlands.
zoom of Castle Rock 
some views along the trail of the nearby badlands:
Another castle like rock formation in the area:
zoom from another angle
more views along the trail:
We stopped at the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail at Mesa Verde National Park to hike out to the overlooks of Balcony House and Soda Canyon. This was 1.2 miles round trip and was on top of the mesa. We hiked through some juniper trees along the trail.
Looking south along Soda Canyon and Balcony House is in the alcove about the middle of the photo.
zoom of Balcony House in the Alcove
View of Soda Canyon to the south and
to the north.
View of Soda Canyon to the south from another overlook along the trail and
looking north.
Another overlook along the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail.
There was also some areas of black lava
