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.
Alder Lake: This lake was formed when the Nisqually River was dammed. The lake is outside the park but worth a visit on your way up.
Mt. Tahoma/Rainier from Paradise at five thousand feet. This sub-alpine meadow has changed dramatically over my lifetime as more trees have slowly grown up the slopes.
Tatoosh Range. This photo was taken from Paradise. The Mountain is behind me. I was tempted to crop out the parking lot, but the mountains look kinda fake, so I left the parking lot in as a reality check. Yeah, these are real mountains.
Finally, the flowers. This was the only patch of orange Indian Paint Brush I found close enough to photograph. The magenta was more common.
Bear grass in bloom. I've usually seen it with only the puffy grassy seed heads.
Magenta Paint Brush. I liked the wide strappy leaves with it. The common name for the leaves was False Hosta.
Myrtle Falls is an easy walk on a paved trail from the Paradise parking lot. There were stairs involved to take this picture but this part of the park is accessible. We had maybe three hundred feet elevation gain on this part of the walk.
Upper Myrtle Falls from the bridge in the picture above.
The town of Elbe is on the way up to The Mountain. Elbe has the station for a narrow gage historical train. They offer rides back up into the hills. If you like trains. Elbe is a must stop. Ashford is the town closest to the mountain and has some shops featuring arts and crafts.
Oregon Gardens and Silver Falls St. Park OR. By Delinda McCAnn
A monster in one of the water purification ponds. The ponds were full of plants and wildlife ducks, frogs, snakes.
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.
Conifers. These trees are Hubby's favorite garden tree.
Loved the arrangement of light and color. The gold lit up this vignette.
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Silverton Oregon and Oregon Gardens By Delinda McCAnn |
The gardens were full of wildlife including birds and small squirrels. This bumblebee delighted me with his dark body in the pink bloom.
Silverfalls. This is upper south falls from the front.
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.
This is Upper South Falls from the back. Yes it is damp in the cave and people over 5'2" have to watch their heads. The cave is low in some places.
Here is Lower South Falls from the front. Silver Creek had a lot of water after months of rain.
Lower South Falls from the back. I love that the trails actually take you behind the falls.
We saw lots of wildflowers on our hike. This violet is a rare find for me.
This trillium may turn white as it matures. I hadn't caught one that was this color in the wild before.
The resort is located in farming country. We visited Schreiner’s Iris Gardens and Adelman peony garden.
Schreiner Iris Gardens are near the resort. I love Iris.
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This iris is on my to buy list. What a dark beauty.
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Look at the colors in this iris. I think this one even had a scent.
Primroses. The iris weren't in full bloom, but the primroses were spectacular. Why don't mine look like this? A. Slugs get mine.
Adleman Peony Gardens are near the Schreiners Iris Garden. I hadn't seen something called a tree peony with this habit and bloom.
The foliages and shapes in a garden hold interest when the flowers aren't quite in full bloom yet.
This peony had such a wonderful shape and subtle blending of color from the purple to pale pink.
After looking at the gardens, we swung by this covered bridge. It is still in use on this rural road.
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
Service Berry
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.
Near Paradise
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.
One of the two rainbows
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.
Stevens Canyon
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.
A view down box canyon, which reminds me a lot of the slot canyons I saw coming through Canada
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.
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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
On the road home to the Parker Ranch Mt by Delinda McCann
Wild Horse Monument Vantage WA
Timber Creek borders Parker Ranch Haugan Mont.
Timothy and daisies in pasture. Parker Ranch Haugan Mont.
Wallace Id. Movie Dante's Peak was filmed here.
Wallace Id. I loved the detail on this building.
Kellog Id. This beautiful old building is still used. Most of the Historic District was boarded over.
Kellog Id. We found this delightful sculpture of a knight and dragon in the Historic District.
Ritzville WA - I liked the way the sun hit this barn.