Not related to the prince

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Okay, I get it. This is not exactly timely. But it is what it is.

Our reason for overnighting in Olympia was that we had planned to take my aunt to dinner. She is our only remaining relative from my parents' generation. But it was not to be. Shortly before arriving, we found out that she had just been diagnosed with covid, and so we abandoned that plan. However, we did go to her favorite restaurant in Olympia that evening. We also needed to have a part day in a town large enough to have a Honda dealership that could service my Honda Accord Hybrid. We had put 5000 miles on it since leaving Charleston. We knew this would happen, so had scheduled early morning service at the dealership in Olympia. Departing that thrilling adventure, we headed to Mt. Rainier.

Lewis and Clark saw Mt. Rainier from the Columbia River, but did not visit. They also saw Mount Hood and Mount Adams. These peaks had been named 13 years previously by George Vancouver of Great Britain when he had led a discovery party up the Columbia River as far as Beacon Rock, now in the eponymous Washington state park a short distance downstream of Cascade Locks. We will come back to the tale of them on the river. But first, we visited Mt. Rainier.

Mt. Rainier is a large stratovolcano, one of several active such volcanoes in the Cascade Range. The Cascades are part of the (in)famous Pacific Ring of Fire. While the lava from shield volcanoes like Mauna Loa is very liquid, at the other end of the spectrum of lava viscosity is the that of stratovolcanoes, with their more viscous lava that builds up steep-sloped mountains with a summit crater. The high viscosity of the lava from stratovolcanoes does not travel far out to its high viscosity, but is more likely to form pyroclastic flows, such as happened with Vesuvius in 79 AD and Krakatoa in 1883, and much more recently with Mt. St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991. Although Rainier appears cold and silent now, it has erupted as recently as the 1800's, and is considered an active volcano. It has been designated a Decade Volcano, one of the 16 volcanoes worldwide which are most likely to cause extensive property damage and loss of life if they erupt. Since Rainier is twice the size of Mt. St. Helens, it is easy to imagine what could occur. Stratovolcanoes such as this one are highly capable of producing multiple types of destruction, what lahars and pyroclastic flows being two of the most feared.

A lahar is a slurry of pyroclastic (produced by a volcano) material, rock, and water, that flows like a fast-rushing river, pushing aside everything in front of it and scouring the land. It is a force which only lessens when it runs out of material. Many of the communities to the northwest of Rainier are built on previous lahar flows from Rainier, including even some suburbs of Seattle, so clearly these communities are at risk. If the thoughts of lahars keep you up at night, pyroclastic flows are the stuff of pure screaming nightmares. They consist of hot gases and volcanic material that can rush down the mountainsides at speeds up to 430 mph, incinerating everything in their path with temperatures up to 1000^o. Pompeii is well known for its casts of inhabitants who were covered in volcanic ash - admittedly, not a great way to die. But in Herculaneum, these are not often found, simply because Herculaneum was destroyed by pyroclastic flow. Some few pieces of wood that remain are charred. There you are, sitting in your seaside villa, and the next minute you have been vaporized. Because of their speed and force, these flows can even flow over rises in the terrain. Remind me not to be vacationing in Renton when Rainier next goes off.

But right now Rainier is a majestic, steep-sided, snow-covered craggy peak, a landmark that can be seen from many miles away. As you drive there from the Seattle-Tacoma area, you start on level ground (old lahar flows), then gradually start rising up toward the visitor center. Along the way are various forms of lodging, and some shops catering to the outdoor crowd. The forests thicken, and you wind among dense stands of various cedars, firs, and hemlocks, with the species changing as you ascend. You begin to catch glimpses of glaciers. In 2015 there were 29 glacial fields covering over 30 square miles of terrain. Since then there has been some retreat, and a couple glaciers have stopped their flow, thus transforming into ice fields that will likely eventually melt. The snows on Rainier tend to melt slowly, leading to a short growing period. This compresses the bloom period for wildflowers and results in a profusion of blooms that is said to be one of the best places to see such a show..

We did a little hiking from the Jackson Visitor Center, but the steep terrain and altitude somewhat our activity. Okay, maybe age had a LITTLE to do with it.

We ended our day with a drive to Longview for the night.

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