Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Mount Hood

September 2013

We drove by Mount Hood, another volcano in the ring of fire, on the way to our next stopping place.
A few more pictures.

Ashford, WA

September 2013

We stayed at an RV park

in Ashford, next to Mt. Rainier National Park, for Andy and Stefanie's wedding.



Next to our RV, these fungi grew and changed over the days




We ate at an interesting restaurant


where we were visited by some wildlife
Down the road was a sculpture garden created by Dan Kennert, who I couldn't find on the web.



More pictures, including lots more of the sculptures.

Mount Rainier

September 2013

Mt. Rainier is a 14,411-foot volcano

that stands 13,211 feet above the surrounding landscape.  You can see it from hundreds of miles away, on a clear day.

We went to the National Park from two different entrances, went on a few hikes and saw lots of streams

and waterfalls
big trees,
small animals
and birds

At Paradise, there's a lodge

that gets snowed in up to the roof in winter.

People used to go to Longmire


for the hot springs.

We saw some butterflies

and pollywogs
and fungi



More pictures here.  Videos of waterfalls here, here, here, here, here, here, here.  Streams here, here, here.  Butterflies, pollywogs, hot spring and hot tub in action.


Sunday, July 13, 2014

Mt. St. Helens

September 2013

We visited the "other" side of Mount St. Helens this  time, coming in from the Northeast instead of the West.  No visitor center, just a viewing area where you can see the crater

but also the lake, where most of the trees ended up that were blown down in the eruption
Those are them, clogging up the cofferdam at the tunnel that is the exit of the lake, since the old exit was blocked by the lava flow.
We had to walk up these stairs to get to the viewing area.

More pictures.

La Conner

August 2013

We stayed a week in La Conner, a resort town north of Seattle.  It's on the water, near the mountains, and has lots of farmlands, famous for blackberries, and they have preserved some of the native American traditional elements, along with modern and whimsical ones





The RV park had nice amenities, too



More pictures.