Well we arrived in Washington State with no border troubles. It always feel safe and comfy to be back in the lower 48! Of course the iconic Space Needle greeted us as did Seattle traffic!
Our campsite was on Lake Harmony in Mossyrock, a nice spot with a view of the lake and in between our two stops, Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens...
Our first night we ate at a little Mom and Pop place across the water and had our first Washington State wine in quite a while. So good and the $3.50 a glass compared to the $10-12 we paid in CA made it even better! Also, we met 4 folks getting ready to start a cruise to AK so we had lots of infor for them and they were from Huntsville, AL of all places so we had a nice conversation!
Our first morning we were off early to Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier is one of the world's most massive volcanoes, nearly 3 miles high but changes repeatedly due to volcanic action. The National Park is so lush and green mostly due to 144 in of rain a year. Our morning was sunny but cloudy around the Mountain. We came in the Nisqually Entrance, but would visit 3/4 entrances before day was up! Our first stop was the Visitor's center and Longmire Museum named for John Longmire, a pioneer who discovered mineral springs there in 1883 and built a hotel and cabins for "miraculous cures." First thing we saw was one of the iconic red buses just like Glacier Natl Park, but not active here!
We got a glimpse of Mount Rainier but expected to see it better later in the day... little did we know it would get very cloudy later!
We decided to do the Trail of the Shadows which was a nice pretty flat walk and included pretty scenery and interesting features including a tree a beaver almost cut through and a cabin built by Longmire's son in the late 1800's when they were trying to establish the area. As usual, Wayne had fun clowning around in the pictures!
Another unusual part of the hike...trees!!
I found I really like these little short hikes and then back in the car for some more sightseeing, first we stopped for a 100ft drop of the Nisqually River at Christine Falls followed shortly by a 168 ft plunge of the Paradise River at Narada Falls, a bit steep coming back up but well worth the stop!
Next we made our way to Paradise, the most popular part of the park where we took the Nisqually Vista Trail for a view of some 40+ species of flowers as it winds through subalpine meadows to a view of Nisqually Glacier that descends from Mt Rainier.
From Paradise we made a steep winding drive up to the highest paved point, Sunrise, at 6400 ft. Along the way, some beautiful Vistas...
We stopped at Box Canyon, a 100 ft deep gorge carved by the Cowlitz River. Still amazing to see what water can do!
By the time we reached the summit it was all fogged in and raining, what should have been the best view was completely blocked. I took a picture of a picture of the summit...what it was supposed to look like! Right after that I took our view of the summit behind the front trees should be the summit...nothing but fog! We joked that our best view was of the model of the mountain shown below!
As we were leaving the summit we noticed a range off to the west that seemed to be clearing! Could the view of Rainier be clear down at Paradise? Down the mountain we raced, shades of chasing Mt. McKinley in Denali...
We got down to Paradise about 5:00 p.m. and...we saw the base very clearly. That was the best we were going to do, seeing a clear view of Mount Rainier summit would have to wait for another visit!
We got home late to some understanding pups! Our next day we vowed to not be so long...of course we didn't know rain and fog would ensure a short touring day! We started the day very foggy. We knew the direction of Mount St. Helens, but here is what we saw...
We continued driving up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, so named for the USGS Vulcanologist who died during the May 1980 Mt St. Helens eruption while manning the observatory. Completely fogged in we decided to watch the two films, both very well done. One was on the eruption, showing real and simulated footage of what happened that fateful May 18, 1980. The next was a beautiful film on the survival and rebirth of life after the 1980 eruption including gophers that survived under the surface, fish underwater and elk that returned creating a rebirth of wildlife and forest alike. In between the two films the screen rose to a wall of windows of the mountain and low and behold there it was, a pretty good view of the crater that is left of the mountain after the eruption.
Within 10 minutes the fog rolled back in and it was gone again. We went back inside for a Ranger talk on post 1980. Predictive capability improved drastically after that eruption such that scientists were well aware one was coming in the days leading up to 2004. We don't know exactly when it will blow again, but data shows volcanic activity is on the rise again, sometime in the next 20 years it will happen.
Its been an interesting few days. We move on to Prosser, Wa tomorrow, in the wine country with 30+ wineries within walking distance of our campground...oh boy!!!
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