Not much done at start of month, but Thursday AM, 07JUL, up & scrambling to finish getting RV ready for today’s departure, but finally down to local gas station for diesel & on our way. Purpose of trip is to meet up with daughter Rebecca & grandsons Jaxson & Mason for weekend camping southeast of Mt Rainier National Park. Son-in-law Raymond has national guard duty. Everyone’s schedule for camping don’t match perfectly so Rebecca & boys show-up Friday evening & because of medical appointments, we will leave Sunday; Oh Well!
Rebecca wanted to tent
camp in the National Forest, but we opted for older/tired RV park in Randle, WA
(Rebecca eventually decided to pitch their tent right behind our RV in the RV
park). Beautiful drive on state roads
123 & 410 over Cayuse Pass. Not sure
anyone will remember but we have been on this side of Rainier National Park
twice before (see BLOG links below). In
2010 we were here by ourselves & camped in Parkland while visiting the Ohanapecosh,
Paradise, & Longmire Visitor centers.
Second visit was much shorter in 2011 when our daughter Rebecca &
our son Joseph visited us.
The
Ryan RV Express: 15-17JUN10 - Ashford, WA (mt rainier national park)
The
Ryan RV Express: 09-15JUL11 - Various, WA (vacation time w/the kids)
Friday AM we first went to the Ohanapecosh Visit Center to get national park info for Rebecca’s arrival (hopefully early this evening). Then we went to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest Ranger Station in Randle, WA & no one was there. Interestedly because of covid the Ranger Station only has walk-up window service. Next stop was the 2022 Lavender Celebration run by a local Cowlitz Falls Lavender Company outside of Randle. Then a so/so lunch at Blue Stone Café before heading back to RV.
Mount Rainier
National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Gifford
Pinchot National Forest - Home (usda.gov)
Events |
Cowlitz Falls (cowlitzfallslavender.com)
Sometime after dinner Rebecca & boys show-up. Rest of evening spent unpacking her car, setting up their tent, and letting boys burn off some energy after 2-1/2 hours in the car.
Saturday AM off to the Windy Bluff Observation area in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to view the area damaged by 1980 Mt Helens Blast. Beautiful drive on Forest Roads 25 & 99, then Dan, Rebecca & boys hike up to the observation point; and have a great NW view of St Helens & Spirit Lake (lake still has large amount of logs from the blast).
Back to Randle for great burger lunch at Huff & Puff; then back to campground for well deserved rest. Check out campground pool (small pool, too many people, no supervision - can you say chaos?) Then small dinner, followed by family fire & smores; and finally to bed!
Sunday AM Dan, Rebecca & boys head out; while Corrie takes a
break to rest & get RV ready for this afternoon departure. First stop is Mount Rainier National Park,
Ohanapecosh Visitor Center, so Rebecca can renew her free annual national park
pass based on husband Raymond’s National Guard service. We were going park here and hike one of the
easier trials; first still no parking for day use and park passes sold at the
entrance gates not visitor centers. Ranger
recommends going up main rode couple of miles to the Stevens Canyon entrance
gate to get pass & use the “day use” parking there. Great advise!
After getting Rebecca’s new pass we hiked the Silver Falls trial; great hike & excellent views. As we returned to car we saw seven or so young men with high performance kayaks. We guess they were going to shoot the falls, but it was obvious that were taking their time to walk the falls & scoping out the rushing water; we decided not to wait.
At the car it was obvious that further hiking was low on the what to do next list. So we decided to drive up to Cayuse Pass so the boys could play in the snow. As we were deciding what next, Dan mention that Chinook Pass was close by & 800 feet higher & and the boys were all for higher! Good decision because remaining snow field much bigger and GREAT views of Mt Rainier in full sun & almost no clouds. Then back to the RV/tent, to break camp and three hour drive home.
Other than that, not much done during the rest of July but getting RV ready for another outing at end of month. But on Thursday, 14JUL, we had a lite dinner & visit at neighbors Hans & Martha Dankers who we really haven’t seen since covid started. On 16JUL we drove to a soccer tournament that grandson Mason was playing in. Saturday, 23JUL, back on the road again in the RV😊
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