Jul 27, 2012 - at 'home' day

Two of the couples went to Mt St Helens - two of us decided not to go. We had already been there and I needed a break from spending all day sitting in a car. We went into 'town' to go to a Farmer's Market - I use that term loosely. We did manage to get 2 lbs of fresh picked blueberries for $3.70. Then I did some chores - laundry and changing the bed. Our next stop is at Gerherd's son so I would have to go find a laundromat. This was easier - a crappy job but now done (I usually kiss my washing machine when I get home). Good, uneventful day.

Jul 26, 2012 - Mt Rainier Natl. Park

Mount Ranier National Park The park was established in 1899 and was the fifth national park. The park encompasses 236,381 acres including all of Mt Ranier a 14,410 ft stratovolcano. Only 3% of the park is accessible while driving the major east-west road. The mountain rises abruptly from the surrounding land with elevations in the park ranging from 1,600 feet to over 14,000 feet . It is the highest point in the Cascade Range - around it are valleys, waterfalls, subalpine wildflower meadows, old growth forest and more than 25 glaciers. The...

Jul 25, 2012 - Silver Creek, Washington

Back on the road by 8:30am Continuing to travel across Washington state – more up mountians and down but we managed. The scenery was not at all what I expected – brown and dry looking. It was a good day to read. THEN we turned onto the White Pass Scenic Byway. It was much more of what I expected – lush, green forest, lakes and VERY tall fir trees. It was slow-going travel – lots of sharp curves (as the GPS told us every 30 seconds) and still more mountains to cross. Bob would like to have enjoyed more of the scenery but he REALLY needed to...

Sep 6, 2010 - Road to the Clouds

A close encounter with mighty Mount Rainier Monday Our destination today was a campground west of Mount Rainier. To get there from Ellensburg we took several unforgettably scenic routes. The first was Highway 821, which veers off of Highway 82 a few miles south of Ellensburg to follow the west side of the Yakima River on it’s journey south. Both roads take you to the town of Yakima. Highway 82 is the longer but quicker freeway, while 821 meanders as the river meanders and gets you there - eventually. The landscape is an arid semi-desert....

Jun 26, 2010 - RV Upgrades and Repair

50 mph on several occasions) to apply enough torque, when sitting with jacks down and the slides out, to bend the driver’s side front jack. So now we are waiting for an inner jack shaft to be shipped from Tiffin. Because of the coming July 4th weekend, I decided it would be better to get the work done at the RV Dealer in Mt Vernon, WA. I’ll move to a Thousand Trail RV Park 15 miles from Mt. Vernon on July 10. The service manager at the dealer assured me that I cannot damage the non-retracting jack by prying it up with a 2 x 2 that the...

Jun 26, 2009 - Paradise RV at Silver Creek, WA

Our last stop on our mini trip was Silver Creek, a little south of Chehalis & Centralia. The park has a small pond for fishing and another small pond for looks & walking around. A very nice pool, mini-golf, horseshoes & more. We spent a day at Mt. Rainier national park. Awesome! Falls are full & beautiful even the end of June. It was 34 degrees and snowing at paradise lodge, Mt. Rainier. Didn’t stop us from wandering around and enjoying the views. Mt. Rainier is the highest peak in the Cascade Mountain Range in Washington. It is 14,411 feet...

Jun 19, 2009 - TTN Paradise

Though we started out in a fog and drippy weather on the coast, things brightened up by the time our 109 mile trip inland was over. About 14 miles east of I-5 at Chehalis, WA sits the little hamlet of Silver Creek and just above it on a mountain is our preserve. Situated almost exactly between mountains Rainer and St. Helens. We're very satisfied with this preserve. It's large, about 380 acres, has two stocked lakes, the facilities are nice and we're above the valley floor about 1000 feet in elevation. Though one could stay planted in the...

May 27, 2009 - Mt. Rainier/Mt. St. Helens

We are parked at a Thousand Trails campground midway between Mt. Rainier National Park and Mt. St. Helen’s National Monument. You can tell I am a desert rat. Here it is the end of May and it is supposed to be summer. Not in the Pacific Northwest. We visited Mt. Rainier and discovered hundreds of feet of snow on the trails that I was excited about hiking. I had read about the wildflower meadows. Well, summer is only 4 weeks long there so I guess you have to wait until late July or August to see it. Oh well, it is a magnificent park and we...

Aug 29, 2008 - On Mt. Rainier ( WA )

The weather was chilly, cloudy and overcast when we left Harmony Lake RV Park this morning to travel the 50 mile drive to Mt. Rainier National Park. As we entered the park and proceeded along the trail the road was very narrow with towering Douglas fir trees and red cedars framing the road. There were areas where many trees had died and fallen due to the very strong and swift currents in the white water streams and we realized the power of rushing water. We drove past Mayfair Lake and stopped at Christine Falls to take photos. This was one...

Aug 6, 2008 - Mount Rainier

Thursday, 7/31 thru Tuesday, 8/5/2008 Thurs, 7/31 On the way to Yakima, we finally had both cell & internet service. Checking the internet for the Western Recreation Vehicles website, we discovered it had been dropped from service in mid-July. So, I tried to call the factory only to find the number was no longer in service. Whoa! Alpenlite fifth-wheels are no longer being made - Western Recreation Vehicles is out of business. Fuel prices apparently have taken their toll on another RV manufacturer. Since we wouldn’t get to take a tour of the...

Jul 11, 2008 - Mt. St. Helen and Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier was really pretty. It had lots of big pines with lots of Christmas tree smells. We were going to take a mile hike to a viewpoint of a glacier but the path was still covered in snow even though the outside temperature was about 80. We walked about 50 feet slipping and sliding and decided tennis shoes were not appropriate footwear for hiking in the snow. Using the binoculars we could see hikers (or mountain climbers) on one of the summits going to the base camp that is used for mountain climbers going to the very top. Evidentally...

May 1, 2008 - Mount Rainier Nat'l Park and Mt. St. Helens

We reluctantly left the beautiful Oregon coast so that we could swing eastward and visit Mt. St. Helens National Monument and Mt. Rainier National Park. We were able to find a Washington state park half way between these two parks that had sites big enough to handle our RV--unlike Oregon state parks, it appears that most of the Washington state park campgrounds are geared towards small RVs and can't handle anything like our RV. It's also clear that we are here way ahead of the seasonal crowd--except for the campground hosts, we were about...