Mt Rainier, like Saint Helens and Mt Hood, are snow capped volcanos in the Cascades. The Cascades are a mountain range extending from British Columbia to Northern California and are part of the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire.
Mount Rainier
Most of the time, the mountain was in cloud cover. A few times the clouds broke up enough to see the snow covered mountain. Not all of the Rainier National Park was open, but enough to get a good feel of it and hike.
Mount Rainier is a 14,410 foot active volcano. It has glaciers which make mountain climbing very difficult. Climbers require a few days to reach the summit with a success rate of only half the climbers making it.
We had a nice hike to Carter waterfall.
Mount Rainier peaked out of the clouds at Reflection lake, but the water was too choppy for a reflection.
Rainier’s Christine Falls were beautiful.
A short walk to Narada Falls.
Pasque flowers were blooming next to spring Rainier snowmelt.
We did not see much for wildlife, but this Steller’s jay was entertaining.
Rainier is another amazing National Park.
We stayed at the Mounthaven RV Resort. Its only a few miles from the Rainier National Park entrance. They only had 30 amp electric, and low voltage, frequently below 110, requiring it to be boosted, but even then, our surge protector tripped numerous times. It was too wooded for satellite. Their internet was good during the day, but slowed at night. Our site was huge, private, and we enjoyed our stay.
A couple of miles from the RV park was the Wildberry Restaurant. They specialize in authentic Sherpa-Himalayan cuisine of Nepal. It was similar to Indian cuisine but not as spicy. Very good.
A rare indulgance; pizza and beer at the Base Camp Grill in Ashford, Washington.
Mount St Helens National Volcano National Monument
From Troutdale, Oregon we traveled to Mount St. Helens. Our first day there, St Helens was covered in clouds. We watched a movie and looked at the displays at the visitor center.
Wanting to see the entire mountain, we came back the next day and were not disappointed. It erupted on May 18, 1980 leaving a mile wide horseshoe crater. The summit was at 9,677 feet but reduced to 8,363 feet after the eruption.
It was made into a National Volcanic Monument by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. Many of the blown down trees were salvaged and replanted with 19 million trees by Weyerhaeuser. Doesn’t seem much different than the huge tracks of replanted forests already managed by Weyerhaeuser that we’ve seen in our travels. The forest service planted over 9 million trees consisting of a mix of Noble fir, pine, cottonwoods and Douglas fir and hemlock.
There were wildflowers everywhere including: Cardwell’s Penstemon, Scarlet Paintbrush, Bird’s-Foot Trefoil, and Lupine.
Foxglove were everywhere.
There were fields of wildflowers wherever trees were cut down for lumbar, so we took the opportunity for a family portrait.
One of Jake’s favorite obsessions.
