Mt. Rainier National Park
Hubby and I took a day trip to The Mountain. When you live in the Seattle area, The Mountain only means Mt. Rainier. We entered through the South or Nisqually entrance, which follows the Nisqually river up toward Paradise. My goal was to photograph flowers. We arrived a little too early in the season to capture them in their full glory. We still found patches of snow in shaded areas at five thousand feet.
The mountain’s true name, Tahoma, has several spellings that don’t quite capture the Salish pronunciation.
You can find all the facts and numbers about the mountain and park online, but those sources don’t tell you the local lore. First, Mt. Tahoma/Rainier is male. I’ve heard outsiders refer to it as she, which is confusing because Mt. St. Helens is the only female volcano in this area. Now, Mt. Tahoma being male and Mt. St. Helens being female you might expect some hanky-panky. Indeed, local native lore tells about Mt. Tahoma sneaking off south to visit Mt. St. Helens. Obviously, he doesn’t stay put because he only hangs around to be seen from Seattle about sixty days a year. Anyway, the natives got tired of Mt. Tahoma running off south and beseeched the Great Spirit to do something about it. The Great Spirit took Mt. St. Helen’s heart and placed it on Tahoma’s side. Content with his love’s heart near his own. The mountain stayed put. When I was small you could see the heart from the road up to Paradise. The trees are too thick now to see the heart, but it is still there.
The mountain’s true name, Tahoma, has several spellings that don’t quite capture the Salish pronunciation.
You can find all the facts and numbers about the mountain and park online, but those sources don’t tell you the local lore. First, Mt. Tahoma/Rainier is male. I’ve heard outsiders refer to it as she, which is confusing because Mt. St. Helens is the only female volcano in this area. Now, Mt. Tahoma being male and Mt. St. Helens being female you might expect some hanky-panky. Indeed, local native lore tells about Mt. Tahoma sneaking off south to visit Mt. St. Helens. Obviously, he doesn’t stay put because he only hangs around to be seen from Seattle about sixty days a year. Anyway, the natives got tired of Mt. Tahoma running off south and beseeched the Great Spirit to do something about it. The Great Spirit took Mt. St. Helen’s heart and placed it on Tahoma’s side. Content with his love’s heart near his own. The mountain stayed put. When I was small you could see the heart from the road up to Paradise. The trees are too thick now to see the heart, but it is still there.
Oregon Gardens and Silver Falls St. Park OR. By Delinda McCAnn
Hubby and I actually left the house and went adventuring. We got as far as Silverton Oregon, which is east of Salem. We drove for just over three hours to get to a resort called Oregon Gardens. The gardens at the resort cover several acres and feature some natural habitat, a water garden, conifers and roses.
For years local growers had talked about building a world class garden in the center of the state. The project got under way when the City of Salem proposed a garden project that would serve to purify the city waste water. The water garden was born, what a lovely way to process sewage. No. The only smell is the flowers and plants.
For years local growers had talked about building a world class garden in the center of the state. The project got under way when the City of Salem proposed a garden project that would serve to purify the city waste water. The water garden was born, what a lovely way to process sewage. No. The only smell is the flowers and plants.
Twenty miles from the resort is Silver Falls State Park. This is located in the foothills of the Cascades. Inside the park Silver Creek tumbles over a series of spectacular waterfalls. The park has ten waterfalls.
The resort is located in farming country. We visited Schreiner’s Iris Gardens and Adelman peony garden.
This ends our tour of the Silverton area. There is much more to see. I got so enchanted with the murals in Silverton, I forgot to take pictures. The town had some intriguing shops and restaurants. Hope you enjoyed these highlights form our trip. The area is worth visiting. The room rates at the resort were reasonable and the on site restaurant affordable and the food was fantastic.
The following post is from Author Meg Justus. She spent over three months traveling alone in her van from the West Coast to Prince Edward Island. A fan of national parks and sometime museum curator, she knew what to see and what she was looking at. Here she shares her first day of an amazing journey.
Cross-Countries By Meg Justus
May 27: I feel like I could fly.
The movers pulled away at about 2 pm on Friday, with all my worldly possessions filling most of a truck.
In spite of a minor kafuffle with the closing (you all knew everything was going way too smoothly to be real, right?) and some last-minute computer issues (my computer guy finally finished working on my laptop at 5:30 on Thursday evening – fortunately he was doing it remotely so I didn’t have to go pick it up), everything got done. Hallelujah.
I did a last walk-through, called Loralee as I’d promised, made a few last stops, and got the heck out of Dodge.
The movers pulled away at about 2 pm on Friday, with all my worldly possessions filling most of a truck.
In spite of a minor kafuffle with the closing (you all knew everything was going way too smoothly to be real, right?) and some last-minute computer issues (my computer guy finally finished working on my laptop at 5:30 on Thursday evening – fortunately he was doing it remotely so I didn’t have to go pick it up), everything got done. Hallelujah.
I did a last walk-through, called Loralee as I’d promised, made a few last stops, and got the heck out of Dodge.
I’d decided a while back that I was going to go through Mt. Rainier NP on my way, so that’s what I did. Through the Nisqually Entrance, where I found out that the route I wanted to take had just opened for the season that day, up towards Paradise and down through Stevens Canyon. There wasn’t as much snow up there as I’d thought there would be, either. I suspect the reason Stevens Canyon doesn’t open earlier is because the terrain is basically an avalanche waiting to happen. Chute after chute after chute.
It showered off and on most of my way through the park, and I saw not one, but two separate rainbows before I got to Ohanapecosh. Good omen much??? I’d thought about spending my first night at Ohanapecosh, but it was still relatively early and the campground was crowded, and I decided to go on.
On down to U.S. 12, which eventually leads to Yakima, with a bunch of forest service campgrounds along the way. I knew it was Memorial Day weekend. What didn’t connect was how this fact would mean full campgrounds along the way. Oh, well. I did eventually find a site, but it was almost 8 pm by the time I did. Thank goodness for almost 16 hour daylight hours this time of year.
And this is where I end by saying I love Merlin the van. He’s comfortable and self-contained, and I was exhausted, and he made my first night on the road great.
See you tomorrow J.
***
Website: http:/mmjustus.com
Blog: http://mmjustus.com/blog/
Repeating History’s page link: http://mmjustus.com/repeating-history/
Repeating History’s Amazon link: http://amzn.com/B005E8S8UM
Repeating History’s Smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/76672
Sojourn’s page link: http://mmjustus.com/sojourn
Sojourn’s Amazon link: http://amzn.com/B00PIAD446
Sojourn’s Smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/491263
See you tomorrow J.
***
Website: http:/mmjustus.com
Blog: http://mmjustus.com/blog/
Repeating History’s page link: http://mmjustus.com/repeating-history/
Repeating History’s Amazon link: http://amzn.com/B005E8S8UM
Repeating History’s Smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/76672
Sojourn’s page link: http://mmjustus.com/sojourn
Sojourn’s Amazon link: http://amzn.com/B00PIAD446
Sojourn’s Smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/491263