Mountains

We left Kennewick and Washington wine country and headed to Morton, WA southeast of Mt. Rainier. On the way we saw these fields:

We came to find out that they were fields of hops. The plants grow up wires and can be 20’ tall!

Farther down the road there was a viewpoint pullout big enough to handle our size, so we pulled in. Wonderful view of a lake and Mt. Rainier in the distant:

Fairly clear view of the mountain although it was a bit smoky. We learned that there are more glaciers on Mt. Rainier than in Glacier National Park! Go figure that one!

We pulled into the Taidnapam Park which is situated on Riffe Lake. We were a bit concerned staying in a state park with the size of the Busse Bus, but we adjusted parking the coach and fit right in! What a beautiful place!

Full hook-ups and everything! Only problem with the location was that we couldn’t get phone service nor satellite. Talk about boondocking! We are so spoiled glamping!

We took Bear down to the lake at the boat launch. Apparent the lake is a little low, like 30 feet!

I’d hate to try to launch a boat there! Bear however didn’t mind. As soon as he was off the leash he sprinted to the water. Katrina played with him until we needed to go. He really loves the water!

We headed into town to get connectivity and found a Mexican restaurant called Plaza Jalisco. We didn’t really want to eat, but hey, we needed the internet to post the latest blog and to make plans for the following day.

The internet cost us $60.00! Margaritas, guacamole, carne asada tacos, and tortilla soup. The food was actually pretty good, especially the soup. With plans made, we headed back to the Busse Bus.

First up was heading into the Mt. Rainier National Park from the east through the trees:

Over the rivers:

Before we got to see the mountain:

Check out the glaciers!

We stopped to see the Narada Falls:

Pretty.

From there we drove up to Paradise. Literally name Paradise. Very cool area where there were a lot of trailheads. Since we were short on time, we decided to hike up to Myrtle Falls:

Where we saw a marmot:

Oops, that’s Bear looking good! Here’s the marmot:

Check out these wildflowers:

Absolutely beautiful!

We stopped to eat at the Paradise Inn:

Bear loved sharing our lunch and taking in the landscape!

On the drive back we stopped and grabbed these pictures:

We stopped at Riffe Lake to let Bear play again in the water.

The next day we decided to drive down to Mt. St. Helens, yep the same mountain that erupted in 1980. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center:

The Visitor’s Center was closed due to COVID, or lack of personnel, or lack of desire…I’m not sure. We thought about driving up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory but we were worried that it would be closed as well and with our limited view due to it being overcast we decided against it. Instead we decided to drive all the way around the mountain.

We did get to stop periodically and got glimpses of the mountain:

We weren’t sure if the top was covered in clouds, wildfire smoke or it had just erupted!

We drove up to Lava Canyon in order to hike and take in these views:

Bear loved the hike.

He wanted to jump into that water so badly!

We then headed to Windy Ridge to see if we could see the top. After driving about 50 miles on a very winding and in ill repair we decided to scape that idea and head home. That 50 miles took us over an hour and a half! Worst road than any we drove on on the Alaskan Highway!

Safely back in the Busse Bus, we watched one of our DVDs and headed to bed. Tomorrow we plan on continuing our adventures.