Mount Rainier National Park- East (09/02/24)

 The facts and figures: In 1899 Mount Rainier became our 5th national park. It stands at 14,400 feet and is the tallest volcano in the cascade range. Although it is in a “quiet” phase, it is still an active volcano, and steam sometimes escapes from the inner core- we actually got to see that one day. It is the most glaciated peak in the “lower 48” with 25 glaciers. It was the first national park to allow personal vehicles- and to collect an entrance fee.

With the eastern most section of the park- the Ohanapecosh area being added in 1931, it’s no surprise that the CCC ( Civilian Conservation Corp) had much to do with the construction of roads, trails and buildings. Some of them still stand today.

This section of the park is less busy than the western side, and it’s called the Sunrise corridor. The campground is not technically inside the park and the park runs on a timed entry system, meaning that you have to book a two hour window to drive into the park- or be at the gate before 7 am. At least that would be doable since the gate is about a half hour from us but the ranger said just come to the office at 7 pm the night before we want to go in the park, which is when “ the rest” of the tickets are issued. Some tickets are issued months in advance, and some are issued the night before.  So, at 7 pm a bunch of people show up at the office, us included, to use the Wi-Fi. There is no cell signal in the campground and the tickets have to be booked online. We had no issue getting them, so that was nice.

                                                                So, Day 1

Looking at the weather forecast, we knew Day One would be our best day for any hikes that might have a view, so we headed up to the Sunrise visitor center. On the way there we were rewarded with our first good views of some of the glaciers.

After checking out the exhibits, we started out on our hike- part of the Wonderland trail and part of the Sourdough Ridge trail, to form a 5 mile loop.  The Wonderland trail is 93 miles long and encircles Mt. Rainier, so many of the trails intersect with it.

The first section of trail had an offshoot to a viewpoint. Knowing we had a long hike, I debated whether we should do it ( more elevation gain) but I am really glad we did. The view from here was one of the best all day.

From there we passed by two lakes, but with the dreary weather, there was nothing exciting about them. 

The climb to Sourdough Ridge was where the tough elevation gain came into play, and once we made it to the ridge, it was freezing- but not freezing enough to keep Frozen Lake frozen. Didn’t even take a picture.

At this point, the fog and clouds were constantly moving and changing what we could see and not see.

Heading down the ridge we had our first, and soon after, our second great wildlife sighting of the day ( we saw an elk on the spur trail, but from very far away).

A hoary marmot came wandering across the rubble next to the trail, and the next thing I knew he was on the trail directly behind me.

As we looked off into the distance to admire the view of the North Cascade mountains, we spied a mountain goat.

He was just chilling out, relaxing for the afternoon.

We loved the hike and the views, although we didn’t know what we were actually missing until a few days later.

                                                                   Day 2

What’s worse than hiking a trail when its drizzling, and 55 degrees outside? Sitting in a camper, with no electricity and no cell service, when it’s drizzling, and 55 degrees outside ( This is the inside of the camper at 11 am). A note- yes we can use our lights- we have a great battery, and gobs of solar panels,  but we are in a no-generator use loop, and it’s been raining on an off for days.

This is why we hiked our second day. Plus the forecast for the following day was even worse.

We chose a trail nearby, the highly rated Silver Falls trail. We could have walked there from the campground but it would have added some mileage…in the rain. Nope.

The falls were spectacular- hard to get a picture that does them justice.

Once we had our fill, we continued on, deep into the forest along the river, which gave us some protection from the rain.

This trail meets up with the iconic Grove of the Patriarchs, which is a grove of old growth trees, but the trail is closed due to a bridge being damaged. We still thoroughly enjoyed the walk and had a good time using our “Seek” app to identify the trees we were seeing. 

All in all, we hiked about 3 miles, not bad for a rainy day.

As I said, the forecast for the following day was even worse, and we were out of ideas for hikes in the rain, so we elected to leave the park a day early and stay in town where we could do some laundry, charge our battery, have cell service,  and pick up some supplies. Our stay on the west side of the park is a full week- without services of any kind. 

More Washington (08-28-24)

 But first…..When we take the Bronco on rough roads, we need to air the tires down so the ride isn’t so rough. The compressor we have in the Bronco is slowwwwwwwww, so Paul wanted a new one. We were planning on staying at the Mt. Vernon Elks lodge, so we decided to make an Amazon “run”. Usually we would have things delivered to an Amazon Locker (great invention) but the new compressor is too heavy for that. Luckily the camp host at the Mt Vernon Elks said we could have it shipped to her and she would hold it for us.

Once the order was made, we had a few days to explore before landing in Mt. Vernon. We stopped at a small federal campground that allows reservations, near Baker Lake. I don’t think we saw much of Baker Lake, but we did capture glimpses of Mount Baker.

We did a short hike that day, after taking the Bronco down some sketchy “roads”. 

At the end of the hike was a hot springs. We never know whether there is really a spring that you can get into on these hikes- this one definitely had a hot spring, loaded with people. We said hello and kept going.

The following day we drove up one of the main roads in Mt. Baker National Forest,  where we did two hikes. The first one was a short trail around a small pond. I think it was paved. It was about a mile long,

As we drove up the mountain, it was “clear” that the weather was NOT clear and we wouldn’t have the views of Mt Baker we were hoping for.

Our second hike was about two miles long, down and around Bagley Lake.

The fog was so thick, it was hard to see much of anything beyond the trail. It had a really eerie feeling.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this hike and all the spookiness that went with it. 

Our original stay in Mt. Vernon was intended to be just a few days, but we extended it twice. We had some errands to do, and there is plenty to see in this area. When making the plans for this area we debated back and forth whether we wanted to spend any time in Olympic National Park and the San Juan Islands.

We have been to that area before, although not for a long visit. In the end we opted to do a day trip through the San Juan’s and skip Olympic. Instead, we booked 11 days in Mt. Rainier National Park, which we have never visited.

Our day trip took us first to Fidalgo Island where we hiked a 2.5 mile loop around Washington Park which sits right on Flounder Bay. In addition to enjoying the ocean views, it was fun to see a juvenile bald eagle fly directly over our heads. I didn’t think to get out the camera, I just enjoyed the fly by.

This land this park sits on was owned by Tonjes Havekost, who, when he died, bequeathed the land to the town, with instructions to “make my tomb a park”, and indeed, his tomb is in the park.

From there we headed to Whidbey Island where were investigated the forts that have been turned into state parks. 

Paul enjoys forts, and I enjoy the views.

Our option from there was to take a ferry across to the mainland, or turn around and drive back the way we came. We drove back the way we came.

As soon as we realized that the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery is an hour from Mt. Vernon, we booked a tour. This is my favorite wine.

The first thing I noticed was how spectacular the gardens are on the property. It turns out that one of the original owners, Nellie Stimpson, was a co-founder of FTD Florists. Her husband Fred, owned and ran a state of the art dairy farm.

The property was eventually bought by a corporation and turned into the winery that it is today. At that time, Washington was not known for it’s wines but after years of experimenting and wine production, in 1974, the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling was entered into an international blind taste test- and won.

That win catapulted Washington on to the map in the wine industry, and is the reason Chateau Ste. Michelle is considered to be the founding winery in Washington. Their Riesling is apparently the best selling  Riesling in the world.

We assumed we would be touring a chateau, but the “tour” was more or less a special tasting. In fact it’s very clear that this property is laid out for the drinking of wine. They don’t bottle the wine here, nor do they grow the grapes here.

You can drink at a table inside, a private room inside, a table in the gardens, or a private cabana.

 

For over an hour, our guide taught us how to drink wine, and how the right kind of food can change the taste of a wine, and vise versa. One of the wines we tasted was a chardonnay- I am not a fan- but I will say, with the sharp cheese it was paired with, the flavor was considerably toned down for me. I also enjoyed the red blend- their Indian Wells has the tannins softened, making it more drinkable for non-red wine drinkers.

Apparently I am a messy wine taster, haha. The price I paid for being a bit “buzzed” before lunch was that I completely forgot to buy some wine.

The other thing this winery is known for is its summer concerts. They get big name performers. We watched as people started lining up at noon for a concert that starts at 7 pm. The performer was Pat Benatar.  The Beach Boys are performing next week.

After a much needed stop for lunch at a nearby restaurant, Paul and I headed to the Boeing Factory on the way home. Tours sell out months in advance, so all we could do is look around the visitor center, but they had a few interesting displays.

We made friends with a tour guide who wasn’t giving a tour, and he gave us a ton of information about the factory and the company.

He pointed out each building and what it was for, and the history of the factory and the company. Until 2023, only the 747 was built here, and in 1968, while the first one was being built the building it was built in was not finished and the workers actually got rained on while “inside” the building. The building, is in fact, the largest building (by volume) in the entire world.

The buildings for painting are across the way from the main buildings. Interestingly, he said that they do not use robots for painting- every plane is painted by people- they are suspended by wires to do the painting. Apparently the robots “saw” shadows as blank spots and would add more paint. More paint means more weight.

With a few days to kill before our Mt. Rainier reservations, we headed to the small town of Cle Elum. Mostly while there we hiked- what a shock. It seems to be our summer theme and I am ok with that.

Our longer hike was supposed to be 6 miles up Jolly Mountain trail, but at about the 1 mile mark we came across some awesome views, and after enjoying them for a while, we decided to head back down the hill.

Our second day we hiked a 3 mile trail to Cheese Rock in a nearby local park. The rock did resemble cheese somewhat, and also had some decent views.

In keeping with our exploring on days when we move to a new location, we made plans to visit Boulder Cave on the way to Mt. Rainier. The amount of people allowed to visit each day is limited so we had to get a reservation online ahead of time. The trail to and through the cave is about 1.5 miles long. As caves go it wasn’t terribly interesting.