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Published: July 21st 2006
Sol Duc falls
A very pretty waterfalls: Olympic National ParkJuly 30th 2005 - August 8th 2005
2005 has been a hectic year. Lots of activities! I was going for a 3 month break to India, a week after we return from this trip.
Ganesh’s office had a forced shut down for 10 days and this was our later 5 days of vacation. We wanted to see WA & Glacier National Park.
We initially thought of driving it all the way around. But some knowledgeable people from RTA told me “Impossible”. Duly noted. Next question: fly to where?
We checked Portland and Seattle. Seattle would not have made it a round trip. Lots of criss-crossing. So, it had to be Portland.
Ganesh had already been to Portland. I was not too keen and told him, “Let’s not do it…” But then, as always, he wanted to :-)
It seemed to me as if I was on the phone, whole of this year. Calling and checking for lodging.
I just came across this site, Motel Guide, and tried my luck. I had difficulty with Portland itself. The place was so expensive.
One day of casual browsing took me to the lodging in Glacier National Park, MT.
Rates
were very competitive. I booked a private room for 2 days.
I think I booked lodging at Port Angeles next. It was not very inexpensive, but best available with wireless internet.
We had not planned a lot…Lots of places were added new, every now and then.
A lot of people told that the trip was too much, that we should either drop Glacier or Olympic, but those were the reasons we were making this trip.
We later added Mt. Rainier & St.Helens. I picked up a good place at Everett as I was advised to go for a place outside Seattle, rather than in the city.
We both realized that the trip was going to involve lots of long days. I think we were prepared.
Southwest Airlines have open seats. It was a little uncomfortable to go early and catch a seat.
Our itenary:
July 30 2005 : Depart SJC 9.50 am. Arrive PDX 11.30 am
Columbia River Gorge, Portland, OR.
July 31 2005 : Mt. St. Helens NM, Mt.Rainier NP.
August 1 2005 : Drive to Olympic National Park.
August 2 2005 : Olympic National Park.
August 3 2005
Mt.St. Helens
Showing some activity : Olympic NP, Seattle.
August 4 2005 : Seattle, North Cascades NP. Drive to Kellogg, ID.
August 5 2005 : Drive to Glacier NP, MT.
August 6 2005 : Glacier NP.
August 7 2005 : Drive back to Portland, OR.
August 8 2005 : Depart PDX 7.00 am.
It was a good feeling to fly over the Cascade Range. We were right over Mt. Shasta. It was a quick 1 hr 30 min flight until we got a sight of Mt. Hood (highest peak in OR).
As soon as we landed, we picked up a Toyota Corolla (grey- why tell color? Will come later :-) ) from Hertz and headed right into the nearest Costco to stock up for all the 10 days.
We hit I 84 and our first stop was the obvious Multnomah Falls. I had seen pictures earlier, but this time it wasn’t as dramatic. Not much water. We took a hike to the top of the waterfalls. All along, we got beautiful views of the huge Columbia River. Don’t remember seeing such a wide river in a long time. It was still very hot though. Didn’t expect this climate in Oregon. There
Narada Falls
Mt.Rainier National Park was this beautiful drive that had a lot of waterfalls. Wahkeena falls, Horsetail falls, Latourel falls, and lots more that I don’t remember now. This is along hwy 30 a small detour from I 84. We took the scenic drive to Crown Point—from where we could see the beautiful gorge; and just in time for sunset from Larch Mountain view point (Remember paying some parking fees). It involved some climbing(not well marked; we got lost and went to a lot of other places before climbing a series of stairs to have Mt. Hood behind and this amazing sunset over Columbia gorge and Portland in front). So, I guess, I would say, it was worth every bit.
We drove back in dark to Econolodge, Portland. I remember it being closer to I 5 near the Washington border and the place seemed very run down. But the room was decent. Off to bed after a hot shower. The next morning, we packed stuff into the car, had breakfast in the lobby and left early to Washington. It was not after a good 20 - 25 miles that we remembered that we did not have our igloo with us and we
Multnomah falls
Second highest year-round waterfall in US had forgotten it in the motel lobby. We knew we were losing all the time we made up by leaving early. But, it was inevitable. So, we had to go back. So, it was a quick rush back and then over to Mt. St. Helens.
Each day when the sun came up, we were hoping for it to go down. That hot. And our grey corolla (black interiors) certainly did not help. :-(
Mt. St Helens had been showing some activity for quite some days then. We did see some smoke and steam. What struck me most was the glacier inside the crater. View from Johnston’s ridge was the best. The 1980 eruption had devastated the place and it was still very visible. But new trees still found a way to find new life. A great lesson for life! There is always hope. Another interesting fact: When St.Helens erupted, the sound could be heard as far as Seattle.
Well! With all this in mind, we had to rush further on, to Mt. Rainier National Park. It was almost evening when we reached there, but we just could not skip and carry on. All along the
drive we got sights of Mt. Adams off and on.
There were beautiful waterfalls in the Park. I remember Christine falls and Narada falls. There was this huge 14000 ft mountain staring at us. We took the short Nisqually trail that gave us various views of Mt.Rainier. It would be dark soon. We retired at Motel6, Tumwater. Not very far away.
Next morning, we were off to an early start. I was to meet up with Judy before getting over to Olympic peninsula. She is a friend from a road trip forum. We met her at Aberdeen and followed her to the local visitor’s center. She suggested us to take the ferry over to Seattle instead of driving all the way down to Olympia. This place was so beautiful. There was a slight drizzle and the ocean was foggy.
Before getting into Ruby beach, there was a drive-in beach that Judy asked us to get to. My first such beach where we could drive into. It was a spectacular beach. My thanks to Judy for that. Nice to have a local to guide you.
Our first stop was Quinault Rain forest. The park had various
temperate rain forests. It was so different specially as we were from California.
We did a short hike to get a feel of the forest. I remember seeing lots of lakes, lots of big spruce trees & of course lots of beaches. But we stopped at the most famous Ruby beach. No wonder it is popular. Its beautiful. With all those rocks, so typical of the pacific coast.
We were just in time to “Hoh” rain forest. We again took the famous Hall of mosses trail. It was so green and beautiful. Wished we had a bug spray though!
It was getting dark and we had reservations in Port Angeles. Enroute, remember crossing a huge lake named Crescent. But it was dark already. As always, time only to dine & crash. The nest day, we were heading to Mt.Olympus. We checked in with the visitor center and took the scenic trail from where we could see north into British Columbia, Canada. I remember hiking to Marymere falls. Another short hike to Cape Flattery-the north-west point in contigual US. The drive was spectacular. So much fog. We had to get a permit to visit native Indian land. We didn’t
have much to see in Cape Flattery than the fog. So, we still made it to Sol duc falls. It was again a short hike. But till date, it is the most beautiful falls we have ever seen. Very photogenic!
Next day morning we had a ferry to catch at Bremerton. We made it around noon. I was so excited to be in the ferry and see the so far Mt. Rainier from there. There were these gulls that followed the ferry. It felt so nice. After a good 45 min, we were in Seattle. Seattle’s skyline was wonderful from the bay.
Once on land, we took the underground tour at Pioneer square. They pretty much have an old city down there. It was all so fascinating!
The all famous Pike’s market. We did get the sight of the people singing while throwing the fishes. Good sight. They also have a pretty oceanfront.
Then it was time for ‘the’ space needle. We did hang around the rides nearby. Then we took the elevator up to the top and saw this first sight at the downtown. Terrific! Nothing short. I had no idea Seattle had
Upper Christine falls
Mt.Rainier National Park so many lakes nearby. The interesting part was to view Tom Hank’s house on the banks of Lake Union.
We stayed until the sun went down as it sparkled the sky scrapers.
Listening to my friend, we crossed over Seattle and stayed in Everett for the night. Last thing the next morning we need is a long traffic halt!
Nothing different, we started early, heading towards North Cascades national Park.
Bears were common here, but not expected in the more popular nature trail that we took. We got views on the Cascades. This park has the maximum number of glaciers second only to Alaska. Well! That’s news.
There were a lot of lakes in this park. I remember Ross Lake being blue-green. Awesome!
We left the Cascades behind. Rockies, here we come! After a long, really long drive, we stayed overnight at Kellogg, ID.
The next afternoon, we were here at Lake McDonald. It was so windy and the lake was beautiful. Sooner than we knew, we were on the most famous, Going-to-the-sun road. The Rockies looked so different without the snow. We could see what the snow had done to those
Lower Christine falls
Mt.Rainier National Park mountains. They were all eroded, but beautiful. They were so different from the Rockies in Colorado and Wyoming. Probably, it’s the snow!
We stopped at every viewpoint on the map. We got so excited seeing mountain goats on the road. So many of them and they seemed they did not mind all these people. We then stopped over for some waterfalls. There were 2 waterfalls in this trail. There were quite a few people that were starting into this trail. But then, most of them turned around. The reason? Well! A board that said “Grizzly country”! :-)
I was taken by this fear. We started making noise hoping some bears could hear. But the first falls (St. Mary falls) was like less than a mile away. There were a lot of people there, trying to jump into the cold water. But the next falls, Virgin falls, was further away. No one seemed to go there. It was evening around 6.45 pm. I became so paranoid and scared. The waterfalls meant too much, though, to give up. After seeing the falls finally, my fear seemed to go down. Hmm... But we still made our way back as
Mt.Rainier
Mt.Rainier National Park fast as we could.
We had reservations at Backpacker’s Inn in East Glacier Park. So we checked in and were so happy to see a neat room. Only when we checked our time, did we notice that our watches were still on Pacific Time. Had I realized that we were hiking at 7.45 pm, I doubt if we would have done the hike to the falls. Grizzlies are very active in the mornings and evenings, when the sun is not too high. Ignorance is bliss!
It was not long before we had dinner, planned for the next day’s events and crash.
As planned the previous night, our first morning stop was at Mary’s Lake viewpoint. We got to see some deer there. We wanted to do a hike near the continental divide. Hidden Lake was not too far and it was still time until the Sun was high above. It seemed like a popular hike, so many people, probably because there were chances of seeing a mountain goat or a big horn. We got to see both. So far, Continental divide has given us some of the best views. This one was no exception.
We wanted to see the Many Glacier area of the park. So, we drove there, had lunch and were relaxing. By now, the sun was scorching. Thanks to the winds. We took the short trail to Eagle falls; basically to relax in the shade.
We had time to get back to East Glacier and basically hang out there for a while.
Next morning we started our long drive to Portland. With lots of good memories and satisfaction we boarded the flight back home.
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