Our week in the state of Washington was amazing and exhausting. Mt. Rainier. Mt. St. Helens. Olympia. Olympic National Park. And finally, Spokane. So many beautiful sites and so many miles of lush, green amazingness, a few whale tails and then, as we headed east, the familiar mountain desert that reminded us of home in Colorado. What a unexpectedly beautiful and memorable trip!
Memory #1 – Mt. Rainier
Like Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier stands so tall among its surroundings. It is enormous. And beautiful. And intimidating. At the RV Park we stayed at, Shady Firs, we met a retired gentleman and his wife.
He had recently retired and now made his home in Randle, Washington. As we were talking with him about our brief trip to Mt. Rainier, he recalled the many hikes he had made up the mountain. He had never made it to the summit, but had many times made it up to Camp Muir. He had mentioned he was 74 years old and that 2 years ago he was making the hike and ran into some weather. The clouds and fog had rolled in making it impossible for him to find his way back down. He decided to hunker down for the night in the freezing cold drizzle. He mentioned many of the techniques he had used to keep warm, and alive – his wife waiting at the bottom of the mountain.
He was only supposed to be gone for 4 hours or so, and as each hour passed his wife became increasingly more concerned. She talked to the rangers and they said that they couldn’t really do anything until the morning. She stayed the night in the car and very early the next morning, she saw a shape appear in the distance. Thankfully, it was her husband. Extremely cold, but alive and well. All this, and the man was 72 years old! What an inspiration!
Fortunately for us, our story at the mountain was much different. We hiked a very short trail up to Myrtle Falls, came back through a meadow and ate some lunch. The kids got the Jr. Ranger badges and we learned that Mt. Rainier is so large that it creates its own weather systems. It really was a fascinating time!
Memory #2 – Mt. St. Helens
The next day we made our way to the east side of Mt. St. Helens. I had read many suggestions online about how to best view the volcano, and many of them simply said it wasn’t worth going anymore. So we almost didn’t. Thankfully, we decided to ignore those silly people and make the trip. It was worth it and then some. It may have been the most surreal place we had visited to date.
When I had talked to the ranger in Randle, she had told me exactly where we would get our first view of the volcano and strongly urged me to NOT drive off of the road when we see it. I laughed it off. Until we got to that point and Kari had to loudly suggest that I not run off the road! The rest of the drive up gave us views of not only Mt. St. Helens, but also Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier. And if it wasn’t so hazy, we could have seen Mt. Hood all the way in Oregon from our vantage point on Windy Ridge.
At the top of Windy Ridge, we met a family and one other man. All of them were from England. The husband in the family had done business years ago in Seattle, and this was their first time back since. They had brought along their sons for the adventure. The husband said that this was the best place to view to volcano as it was much closer than the view from the observatory. We can’t confirm that, but what we saw was almost unbelievable.
The entire north side of the mountain was gone. It was 2000 feet shorter than before it blew. The lake below was 200 feet higher then it had been before the blast. Harry Truman’s (not the president) Lodge and his own life were taken that by the fury. To this day, the logs of many of the trees affected by the explosion were floating around in Spirit Lake below, creating a moving island down below. This was truly a memorable adventure!
Memory #3 – Port Angeles
After a nice stay near Randle, Washington – we made our way to Olympia for a night. The Capitol building was gorgeous as was the surrounding area. We weren’t there long, but were very impressed.
The next day, we made our way north toward Olympic National Park, Port Angeles and more specifically, Elwha Dam RV Park. After a little jaunt around the park because of a wrong turn. we got unhooked and attempted to figure out what we would do with the remainder of the day. After checking ferry schedules and the like, I came across something intriguing. A whale watching excursion!
I talked with Kari, made reservations and quickly got ready to go. When I say quickly, I mean QUICKLY. We had a half hour to get 20 minutes away. Somehow, we made it. I dropped of the family so they could get us checked in and tried to find a place to park. After going in circles a couple times, I found a parking garage that Zeke really didn’t fit in. I made it work and ran to the dock. I was the last person to board and at the deck mates suggestion, all the crew and passengers clapped as I made my way down the ramp! We left as soon as I boarded.
A hour or so later, we found it. Our first whale! A humpback. AMAZING! It is almost unreal how big these animals are. And we could only see a small pice of the, We followed the first whale around for quite a while and then moved on to a small Canadian island in the bay. This island had it’s own little surprise. A ton of sea lions! This trip was getting better and better.
We circled the island for a bit and then made our way back out to find more whales. We found a second one about 30 minutes later and followed it around until we had to make our way back to port. Which was fine, because at that point we were FREEZING!
It didn’t matter though, whale watching was another unplanned adventure that we will never forget!
Memory #4 – Olympic National Park
It was pretty unfortunate for us, but because our drive out of Washington would take so long, we were unable to visit much of this National Park. All we had time to do was head up Hurricane Ridge and take in the views of Port Angeles, the Cascades and the the beautiful meadows along the trails. While this was a great area to visit, we know we only scratched the surface.
Scout got his Jr. Ranger badge by taking an hour long hike and listening to the ranger talk about the surroundings. As I mentioned, very beautiful but we know to really get the best of of this park we will have to come back another time.
Memory #5 – Salt Creek Recreation Area
After Scout got his badge, we made our way back out of the park. We were going to visit the water falls an hour or so away, but ran out of time because of how long his nature hike took. As an alternative, we decided to make our way back down to the Slat Creek Recreation Area to check out their tide pools. We weren’t exactly visiting at the ideal time as low tide had come and gone – but it was only 20 minutes from our RV Park so we thought we would give it a shot.
While we didn’t see quite as much as we saw at College Cove in northern California, we did see some cool stuff. And the kids had fun climbing the rocks and goofing off in the water. Bella decided to leave her shoes on the shore to go off a climb only to find that the tide had risen and her shoes were floating away! Fortunately, she noticed in time and nothing was lost. Except maybe a sock?!?
The Wrap
Washington was phenomenal. We saw so much in such a short amount of time. Great weather. Sun. Clouds. Green. Desert. A little bit of everything. If we had more time, I think that it may have topped the list of the previous 6 states – but who knows. This was one state that we know we will have to get back to sometime in the future to find out!