Finding Paradise: Walt & Lillian Disney’s 1925 Honeymoon Hike in the Clouds (Part 2)
Walt and Lilly on their honeymoon in Mount Rainier, July 1925
Lilly gasped as she stepped over the threshold of the Paradise Inn and looked up to where the mountain had towered over them when they’d first arrived. A swirling silver fog had moved in, blanketing the entirety of Mount Rainier and shielding it from view.
“Good heavens, where has the mountain gone?” she said, astonished at the change. The enormous peak, adorned with sparkling glaciers and pristine snow, couldn’t simply have disappeared, and yet no part of it was visible. The sky had become a milky white, a stark contrast to the robin’s-egg blue it had been when they’d checked in not even half an hour before.
“It must be playing hide and seek!” Walt grinned, taking his new bride’s hand in his own and leading her toward a small dirt path to their right. A small hand-carved wooden sign read “Myrtle Falls” with an arrow pointing the way.
Hide and seek indeed, Lilly thought to herself. The mountain had vanished into thin air, gone without a trace.
With her free hand, Lilly pulled her brown fur-trimmed traveling coat tighter around her as she tried to keep up with her new husband’s excited gait. A chill had hitched a ride with the clouds, dropping the temperature considerably.
Lilly peered up at the darkening sky and frowned.
“Do you think it is wise to be out walking this late, dear?” she asked, watching weary hikers traverse down the trails on the hillside like ants returning to their nest. Fields of wildflowers bobbed their heads in the breeze as they passed, as if approving their decision to return.
The hikers were all headed in the opposite direction, toward the inn instead of the outdoors
“Perhaps we should turn back,” Lilly said, her voice as muted as the fog that seemed to grow thicker with each step.
Walt observed the others returning, but then looked longingly toward the trail ahead, as if turning in for the evening meant giving up a grand adventure.
There was no hope for it.
“What’s the harm, Lilly?” Walt replied. “Look at how peaceful it is up here, away from all the crowds and the noise.” He gestured to the fields that surrounded them, dotted with splashes of color. Lilly recognized them as Indian paintbrush and mountain heather, with some white confections of blooming beargrass bobbing in the breeze here and there.
It was lovely.
But the flowers were harder to see as the light waned and the clouds shrouded the hillside more with each passing moment.
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This is just the beginning of Walt and Lillian Disney’s 1925 honeymoon adventure! Continue Finding Paradise on Substack to read the rest of Part 2 and follow along as this historical fiction miniseries unfolds.