In Seattle Looking Too Close To Mount Rainier

If I remember correctly, and sometimes I do, I have previously made mention of the fact that I find the frequent instances of misleading photos of Mount Rainier to be a bit worrisome.

What with tourists arriving in Washington expecting to see Mount Rainier being a gigantic presence looming nearby.

This morning's Seattle Times online had the best example yet of this. The Seattle Space Needle peeking above Queen Anne Hill, with Mount Rainier looking like a nearby monster.

Now, when the Mountain is out, it is an impressive sight, naturally, as seen via one's eyes. When one is in Tacoma the Mountain looms way larger, and closer, than it does in Seattle. But not nearly like that which you see in the above photo.

On a clear day, from the vantage point of the Skagit Flats, a little over 100 miles north of Mount Rainier, one can see the Mountain, looking like a big white pimple on the horizon.

I know a lifelong Texan, here in Wichita Falls, who had never been to the west coast til a couple years ago when she flew to Seattle to visit some friends. She'd never seen mountains before. She told me it was mesmerizing, no matter which way she looked, west, east, north or south, she saw mountains. 

I do not know if she had a pre-conceived notion about how large Mount Rainier loomed on the skyline. But, I do know that her friends had a cabin near Enumclaw, the town thought of as the Gateway to Mount Rainier, and that she was overwhelmed looking at that Mountain, so big and white, so close.

She did not know, til I told her, that there are four more volcanoes in Washington. She knew of Mount St. Helens, but not the other three.

Mount Baker, the volcano I lived near when I lived in the Skagit Valley, also gets the distorted zoomed photo treatment. Mount Baker, like Rainier, is also totally impressive in its natural state, without any photo enhancement.

It has been years since I have seen a real mountain, other than the artificial mountain, Mount Wichita, that is located in the town in which I currently reside...