Day 4

The Mountain and Welcome to the Woods

After a great night's sleep, we woke to another glorious day and were packed up and ready to go, in no time. We were very glad that we would be returning to Seattle, but now it was time to get the Silver Beast out on the road!

As we drove down I-5, Mt Rainier followed us, looming up to the left, enormously beautiful - I could hardly take my eyes off it. We had intended to drive 'left' of Tacoma and visit Orting, but the signposting in Pierce County was so very poor, that we missed that particular turning and ending up going 'right' of Tacoma and having to sweep around to the Nisqually Entrance. We stopped in Fife (one of the towns under threat from lahars) to orientate ourselves and I noticed how wide the valleys were there. There would be little chance of all the population escaping to high ground, as high ground was so far away. There was one 'Volcano Escape Route' sign, which I saw - otherwise I saw nothing warning of lahars or showing escape routes, for the rest of the day! We next stopped, a little lost, in Midland, where there were sweet peas growing wild!

Once we had turned off onto the road to the National Park, the scenery began to dramatically change and it was somewhat similar to being in the foothill of the Alps. We stopped for a rest, at a parking spot by the Nisqually River - and, on entering the park proper, again at the Longmire Visitor Centre, where we had lunch - the mountain looming over us!

We next stopped at Christine Falls and then at lookout point, close to Paradise (how aptly named) and took photos of the mountain and of a stellar jay which seemed to be extremely tame! We'd been given a leaflet to explain that, due to improvement work being carried out, we would not be able to park outside the visitor centre, but would have to walk from lower down. This we did. And it meant we had to clamber up steps and over ice and snow (I had SANDALS on and my feet nearly froze!) to get to the centre. It was also quite a climb, and, the air being thin up there, it made you pretty breathless! I for one felt quite cross to then discover that everybody else had parked outside the visitor center!!

We looked around some displays and in the shops - Paul bought a lovely book and I bought some postcards. Then we took a few more photos and walked back down to the car. Continuing along that road, there was loads of snow and we stopped for even more photos there and, further along, at Reflection Lake, still covered with ice - beautiful, beautiful places!

Past the Grove of the Patriarchs (big trees!), we finally, we turned off onto Route 12, which would take us back towards I-5. It was a very pleasant road, passing through small, neat towns, such as Packwood, each with their own gleaming fire stations! But it was a looooong way to the interstate. Once there, we needed only drive down the interstate a little way though, before we turned off at Castle Rock. Here we stopped for food and gas and eyed the Timberland Motel, where I'd originally booked us in. It looked really nice and we were tempted to stay there for the night! But we drove on to Silver Lake and soon found our cabin in the woods ....

It was in the woods, alright - and it was most certainly quaint! It was actually very sweet, with ducks all over the place - and, from what we could see, appeared to be clean enough. The trouble was, we couldn't actually see an awful lot as the whole place was so DARK and the lighting was so DIM as to be almost non-existence. There was a dressed (with fishing bobbins and lures) Christmas Tree in the sitting room! The kitchen was ok - and the bathroom was nice - and the bedroom was fine - and the upstairs loft was also fine (apart from the very steep stairs!). But there was a smell. Sewage. Seeping up between the kitchen and the bathroom. Fair made me barf!!

We went out for some air, and who should be passing, but Mr and Mrs Swan (and dog) the owners of the cabin. We passed the time of day and then they had to depart to their boat as they lived on the island in the middle of the lake! So we sauntered down to the lakeside - and there, in all its glory, was Mt St Helens - wowsers! There seemed to be a campsite there - or, at least, there were people walking around who seemed to be like travellers - but they probably weren't and it was just me having one of my snobby moments!

Anyway, back to the cabin and we put the TV on only to discover that Spain had been knocked out of the WC (by the FRENCH), which put me into an even bigger sulk! We then watched a disaster programme on Yellowstone and then went to bed. Hub and I slept upstairs, under the eaves - while Paul refused to sleep anywhere but on the sofa!

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

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