We drove to Yakima, WA on Sunday and our friends, Ray and Cindy, joined us Monday evening to tour Mt. Rainer National Park. We read that fall is a great time to visit it but, unfortunately, we didn't read further to know that "fall" in this area is September - October begins winter! The advertised "best" viewpoint of the mountain is Sunrise and they closed the road on October 10th - we were there October 11th!! Roger had also planned to do a "loop" tour of the park but part of the loop road was closed for repairs so we had to go part way from the east and part way from the west.
We drove the motorhome over the Chinook Pass, on Tuesday, to a small town named Packwood, where we were able to find an RV park that was still open - all the national parks were closed. After all our time in the "boonies" not seeing any wild animals - there were elk roaming all around Packwood! We could hear the bulls "bugling" in the early morning! We spent the day touring the national park stopping at various scenic overlooks and hiking to waterfalls - but, still too many clouds to see Mt. Rainer. We drove all the way to Paradise, at 5,500 feet, it is located at the base of the mountain. It was 35 degrees and snowing so hard we couldn't see much of anything! But, just as we were leaving, the clouds parted for about 30 seconds and gave us a brief glimpse of Mt. Rainer - glorious!
We ended up at the lodge at Longmire for a late lunch. When we finished Cindy and I wanted to walk over to the gift shop - the guys were having a fit but, we ignored them! - as we walked toward the shop, Ray looked up and said "look!" - the clouds had parted and directly in front of us stood Mt. Rainer in all it's glory! It is truly magnificent! It didn't take long for the clouds to roll back in and totally obscure it but, the view was breathtaking while it lasted! Of course, we had to point out that if we hadn't gone to the gift shop we would have missed it!!
Thursday was a better weather day so we decided to drive back up to Chinook Pass and try to see what we missed in the snowstorm of Tuesday. The weather gods were with us and we saw beautiful scenery and more stunning views of Mt. Rainer. Actually, seeing the mountain sides covered with a light dusting of fresh snow was lovely - it looked like a scene from a Christmas village! In the lower areas, where it wasn't snowing, the aspen trees were decorated in brilliant yellows and oranges.
We headed for Portland on Thursday afternoon and spent Friday in the Columbia River Gorge. We enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner at "Jake's Grill" in Portland on Friday night - our nephew, Jay, recommended it and Ray had been there years ago - and Ray and Cindy flew home to San Antonio on Saturday. It was so nice to have company and someone to enjoy exploring with!
As you look at the pictures, notice the difference between the first pictures at Chinook Pass and the later ones!
PS - I just noticed I spelled "Rainier" wrong in my web album - how could I not remember that is it r-a-i-n not r-a-n with all the rain we endured!!!
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