Washington State Southern Volcanos'

Washington State

After leaving Utah I timed it so I would race thru the SW tip of Idaho and reach Dead Man’s Pass in Oregon during the cool time of the morning.  Then I chilled on top the Pass till the evening and took off for the Gorge.  I had meant to go up thru Idaho but went conservative since I didn't trust the Motorhome engine to cooperate.

There is a spot near The Dalles where you can get a shot of Mt. Hood with one of the Dams in the Foreground….but you get the power pole too.  This is not texting while driving don't worry. It's only photographing while driving !

And because I’m driving I can’t get great pictures but the take home message is “The Scenery has CHANGED”.

 Arriving in SW Washington I decided to spend a little time and get some exercise so I hiked the Beach at Grayland (no Pics) and then took a trip to St. Helens to hike there.

I had never really done any hiking there so this is a light hike that gives a better view into the crater I thought would be cool.

Notice toward the center of the picture the dark ‘lips’ around the lighter inside?

Inside you can see steam clouds and snow melt cascading down.  All the Washington Volcanoes still throw off steam just to let you know they aren’t ‘Done’ yet.

All of my pictures of St. Helens from blast date are on film and I think Gina has the albums or maybe they are on slides and are in California.  I can tell you things are a lot greener, even though it has a long way to go.  I wasn’t expecting wildflowers!

It’s a rare day to find St. Helens cloudless so I was pretty lucky.  It was also warm but a cool ‘air-conditioned’ breeze.

None of that green was there for quite a long time, if you call 37 years a long time.

Mt. Adams is just over the hill and thru the woods a little ways.

That is now Spirit Lake

Don’t know if you see all the ‘sticks’ laying down, but those trees' limbs were incinerated and the trunks blown flat away from the blast.

Some trunks splintered from their stumps and some were uprooted.  Many splintered stumps remain.  On Forest Service land it was decided not to interfere with Mother Nature’s process so everything was left lay.  Weyerhaeuser attempted to salvage on their land but the ash made lumbering next to impossible.  They did, however plant noble fir and were quite successful in establishing stands.  Nothing in the surrounding landscape exceeds 37 years age though.

It is still a site of  awe and destruction with life trying to gain a foothold.

My shoes were gray with ash after hiking the Five mile round trip  trail to the overlook I chose.

But now let’s switch gears… or mountains. This is two days later because I need a day off after most hikes. This is the Ohanapecosh River.

No, I can’t say it either but it runs south east of Mount Rainier near the Grove of Patriarchs.  With the bottom made up of large rounded rock, only the sides brim with powdery sand similar to what I hiked at St. Helens.

This is a protected stand of some of the few remaining old growth forest environments left in Washington.  If it appears dark it is because…it is!

There is quite a canopy above.

  

There are other stands like this in the Cascades and Olympic Peninsula mountains.  Hopefully most are protected in some form.  I just stopped here on the way to Mt. Rainier for a leg stretch.  The pics I took didn’t turn out that great with light and shade and the fact that

The trees are too big to get pictures of!  Like the Redwoods, they are in a community but in this spot

Trying to get depictive pictures seemed futile, but seeing with the eye was simple.

So up to Paradise I went for my hike.  This is the Guide Shack at Paradise.  Quite the slope on the roof.  I think they are concerned about snow load!

This is the visitor’s Center.  The NEW Visitor’s Center for me.  Built in 2008 with a more efficient design for heat and snow load, it replaced the one I remembered that was round with a 360 degree view.   The ‘kid’ who said this was a more efficient design may have been fooled because this is one big open room from floor to roof.  Well, I guess all the heat will go melt the snow on the roof, so wear your coat when you go in.  It is July though so no worries. I didn’t get a picture of the Lodge ‘cause well, it wasn’t in my walking path to what I wanted to see which was namely flowers and mountains.

I came for this

This

This

And this

But those came late in the day since most of the day the mountain was playing peekaboo with the clouds

But tho the mountain itself was quite elusive, the mountain side gave a very satisfying day.  Alpine Fir is one of my all time favorite trees anyway and the wildflower display...

Was awesome.  The variety of plants in bloom and the beautiful weather made the trip a real joy.

Because there was such a heavy snow fall the past winter, and because July still has plenty of snow to melt…

The watersheds were still very active and moisture was everywhere.

The Marmots didn’t mind and were posing everywhere for anyone who would ‘shoot’ them…and we all did!

Rainier’s Meadows are mature and healthy.  They are spectacular and one of the best places in the world to see wildflowers in an Alpine setting.

If the marmots are to blame for this landscape design they did one outstanding job and Mother Nature should give them an “ATTA RODENT” for a job well done.

We’ll get into this deeper because the meadows are enormous, the flowers brilliant and lush, the scenery everywhere….and it is sooooo GREEN!

But I want to tell you a little about Skyline Ridge Trail.  This is a five mile loop that goes really, really, really high!  Higher than what I had remembered.

When it starts, it is very well marked.  And it is very well laid out

And the scenery along the way, vista’s

Vista’s looking Down

Vista’s looking out,  believe it or not, you are looking at Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood…100 miles away, and Mt. St. Helens….Adams and Helens both about 40 miles.  I’ll show you.

Adams left, Hood middle, Helens right…ok, just a minute

Adams….the best I can do

Hood middle…..100 miles away!!!

And St. Helens

Here is one more, a panoramic so you may have to scroll to see it all, because if you ever come see this you will see it all and all at once without a camera lens,  and your jaw drops.

Ok, then still, there are Vista’s looking up

Which by the way, if you can see the ‘trail’ we are still going up.  Trouble is, it starts to get a little confusing as you trek across the snow and the footprints start to disperse into ‘ go where ever you want’ ‘just don’t go the wrong way’ syndrome.

Ok, so I skipped this and some very nice scenery along the way.  We will come back but I want to scare you….think I can’t?  Well, I scared MYSELF so just run with me.  Just wanted you to know there are waterfalls and wildflowers everywhere!

This will be the last clue for the trail.  The snow gets deeper and the signs don’t.  Guess they thought I would know!!  Ha Ha Ha,  what in gods name were they thinking??!!

Periodically I would see a human…..not on this trail but way up or way down and they would shout “am I going the right way” and I swear I would say ‘Your fine’ but ‘ where are you going?’  I couldn’t tell if they were going with me or against me!!  There are switch backs you know….or…are there??  There are other trails also.  Like those that go to the summit!  Yah, no, I'm not wanting that!

This looks safe, others have done it, right?  The snow above better not start going below while I’m here!!

Yah, I feel real good about this, those dam marmots!!  (I don’t like to cuss on line so I spell funny instead)

I just realized.  During the time that I thought I was surely going to die I took no pictures because I am sure I went to survival mode and just started humpin’.  Anyway, you missed some very intense moments of mountaineering by a guy who is better walking the streets of Pigs knuckle Junction.

So let’s just start from the top….which I was never close to!!  That’s over 14,000 ft, colder than a well diggers….oh, sorry, I forgot, no cussing.

That my friends is the beginning of the Nisqually Glacier, which used to be enormous and now is barely in existence.

That is the high end of it.  I AM ABOUT 6,000 SO THE TOP ISN’T MUCH MORE THAT ANOTHER MILE AND A HALF!  What’s a mile OR SO among hikers?!  That last mile doesn't appear to have much for switch backs either, by the way.

Another look

It melts rather well and always has but also seems to be replenished in previous years.  As we all know, all glaciers are receding.  Normal event?

Who cares, let’s just sit around and drill baby drill and let our kids, kids cross that moat….oh, sorry…soap box!!!

This would make a beautiful Black and White photo

The low end in 1980 when I was here was way down that a way and this time I really wasn’t able to get to the Glacier overlook so I’m not sure how much has vanished.  What I see showing doesn’t look very impressive as it did though.

That now is in fact the head water of the Nisqually River that flows all the way to Puget Sound emptying into the Nisqually Delta where in 2000 an under the Delta earthquake occurred while our family was in Indiana for Mom’s funeral and the earthquake took out our chimney in Olympia.  Wow, did that get off topic?

Fine, we’ll talk about trees then

There’s a couple

I think it’s time to start breaking down some of this into smaller parcels

Namely, it’s time to look a little closer

Instead of these phenomenal landscape shots, let’s take a look at what the make up is.

 The Anemones

Anemone Seedheads with Lupine and Paintbrush

 Arnica

Avalanche Lily

Columbine

Glacier Lily

Heather

Did I say Lupine and Paintbrush?

Well, did I?

How about just Magenta Paintbrush

Or Mountain Daisy with….LUPINE

 Or what about Partridge Foot

Pedicularis

Or my favorite Penstemon

      Rosey Spirea

 Shooting Star

Or Phlox…in two colors

Ok, yah, so I looked some of them up…. I bought the book this time!

July is the time of year to get serious about Washington Cascade wildflower hiking.  Hopefully August will still be good for areas farther north toward Mt. Baker and I’ll get one more opportunity.

Till then, I dearly hope you enjoyed my babble along with the Evergreen States finest display of nature. I'm almost at the North end of this year travels.  Hope I don't get too busy to get more pictures. It’s Great to be able to get outside!!