Mount Rainer

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We took a short hike to an overlook in the campground at Riverside Park over the Spokane River. We got on Route 90 and headed west. We were surprised at how flat eastern WA state was. We saw a beautiful wind farm in the hills. Then we came to a scenic overlook and saw the beautiful and wide Columbia River. The interstate bridge over the river looked like the cape cod canal bridges.

Coming over a hill in Ryegrass, we got our first glimpse of Mt Rainer. This huge 14,110 foot mountain sticking out of the prairie about 75 miles away. We stopped in Ellensburg for lunch and then got on Canyon Road and headed south. The canyon was gorgeous. It was so western looking, something we would expect to see in Wyoming. It followed the Yakima River. We then headed west through thick forest on Route 410 and arrived at the Chinook Pass and that is when we were up close and personal with Mt Rainer.

We took a drive up Sunrise, a road that goes up to 6400 feet elevation. The temperature at this elevation was 74 degrees. We compared it to Mt Washington which is basically the same altitude, but it hardly ever sees the temperature that warm. Dave says the high temps on Mt Washington hardly ever gets above 55. We stopped at Sunrise Point and took some great pictures. We went to the vistor's center at the top and learned that Mt Rainer is an active, although "sleeping" volcano. It spews steam into the air, which is probably why there is always a cloud around it. We read in the park paper that if the earth rumbled and we heard a freight train type noise to run uphill and get to above 160 feet of any river. Comforting?

We camped in the park at White River Campground (only about 40 feet above a river). All the rivers we saw there look like muddy rivers. We were going to head south on 123 and do the southern area of the park, but the road was closed due to heavy flooding that occured in November last year and the road was washed away in 4 spots, including one spot were the road fell 70 feet. It rained 18 inches in 36 hours.

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Photos

Wind Farm
This was truly a beautiful sight. I don't think these stuctures are ugly

Route 90 over Columbia River
Looks like the same style as the Cape cod Canal bridges

Dave at Sunrise Point
Mt Adams in background