In late August I visited Mount Rainier National Park on the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. As I spent two days exploring the park, I was struck by how lucky I am to live in the Seattle area with this marvelous place only a little over two hours away.

There are tremendous alpine mountain views throughout the park, like the shot above of Mt. Rainier from the National Park Inn at Longmire. There are also a number of extremely scenic waterfalls in the park, some that require significant hiking, but others that can be reached by just a short walk from the car.

Christine Falls and Narada Falls in the Paradise area are two such waterfalls that don’t require much effort to get some great views and photos.