PNW Road Trip Day 5: Mount Rainier

Day five started out lazy and relaxed with a couple of cups of coffee brought to me in the room...yeah, that's the way it should be :)! After coffee and having a little breakfast in the room, we headed over to the Paradise Visitor Center to see if we could talk to a ranger that could give us any hope of Mount Rainier coming out of the clouds during our visit. Of course, we were told that they had no idea, but that She hadn't shown herself all weekend. Okay, not a lot of hope. Next, we packed up our gear for the day and headed east over to Box Canyon and to the Grove of the Patriarchs to do a little hiking. It was a beautiful drive with the mountains of Stevens Ridge on one side and the Tatoosh Range on the other. After stopping at Inspiration Point which was covered in snow,  we came upon this cool rock tunnel (below) right before entering Stevens Ridge.

Stevens Ridge

Unicorn Peak and the Tatoosh Range

 Our next stop is arguably one of the most photographed places in all of Mount Rainier National Park, Reflection Lake, where you usually see Mount Rainier and its' reflection in the lake along with beautiful wildflowers in the foreground. Well, not today! As you can see below, Reflection Lake was still frozen over and Mount Rainier was covered in clouds. Ah well, I took a photo anyway...the soft blue ice covering the lake was pretty and the sun was shining on the snow beyond. It was a slick climb up to this viewpoint too!

 This beautiful little bird came and hung out with us for awhile on this stop. She was quite the ham.

 Our next stop was at Box Canyon of the Cowlitz. I just love the name. 

When we got to the overlook, someone was telling us to go north.

A very colorful Stellar Jay in the parking lot.

Grove of the Patriarchs Nature Trail. This was a very cool hike through a forest of old growth trees, some of which are a thousand years old, onto an island in the middle of the Ohanapecosh River. 

This is where the infamous "lens cap video incident" took place...one of the funnier moments on this trip! This is the rope bridge that takes you over the  Ohanapecosh River onto the island and the Lens Cap Video is below that.

Haha, anyway here is the video retake with the lens cap off.

After the Grove of the Patriarchs, we hiked up the road a ways to Silver Falls.

We arrived back at the hotel around 5 PM. We poured some wine and took our laptops out into the lobby to relax and look over our photos from the day. The atmosphere in the lobby was wonderful, which I find to be the case in a lot of National Park Lodges. They had the fireplaces going at both ends and there was a piano player that was playing some music. We sat at one of the window tables that had big glass windows...just in case Mount Rainier had a change of heart. A couple of hours later, we headed back to our room to drop off our cameras and laptops, then we headed to the dining room. About halfway through our meal, we noticed that the sun was peaking out of the clouds outside. There were still a lot of clouds hovering, but it started to look a bit more promising. Okay, we better get our bill just in case we have to make a run for it.

The photo below is the roof of the Paradise Lodge lobby.

Just as we were finishing up in the dining room around 8 PM, the sun made it's appearance known. We looked outside and.the clouds were lifting fast....we were beginning to see the outline of a mountain...a big mountain! We left the dining room and ran down the two corridors to our room...grabbed our cameras and flew out the backdoor of the hotel. We scrambled up a large snowbank, laughing and sinking up to our knees at times as we went. When we finally reached the top of that snowbank and turned around, well, let me just say that this was the best moment of the whole the trip for me.

Not another soul to be seen. Everyone had either left after Memorial Day weekend, or they were in for the night. It was us alone with the mountain.

And, there She was...what an incredible sight. 

Thank you Mount Rainier.

PNW Road Trip Day 4: Columbia River Gorge to Mount Rainier

We had one more very full day ahead of us before getting ourselves up to Mount Rainier for three nights. While I've been busy having fun these last three days, I was also looking forward to settling in for a few days and catching my breath. We awoke close to the crack of dawn and packed up the car, had a little breakfast out of the ice chest and we were ready to go. We were heading a little north to Astoria and then due east to the Columbia River Gorge. I'd been wanting to visit the gorge for many many years, and now the day was finally here. Yay...let's go!

About two hours later, we found ourselves entering Troutdale, as you can see, it's the Gateway to The Gorge! 

First we crossed Sandy River Bridge that leads to the Historic Columbia River Highway. I had to take a photo of it because it was a nice bridge, and besides, it had my name.

A cloudy day here at the gorge, but I wasn't complaining. Our first stop was at the Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint (quite a mouthful), and Chanticleer Point. Pretty!

 Next stop was Vista House and Crown Point Overlook. It was already starting to get crowded at this point. I was shocked I was able to get a photo of Vista House without a bunch of people all over. We strolled around here for awhile, climbed to the balcony in Vista House and then were ready to move on. Oh, I think the waterfalls start after this stop!

Our first hike of the day was to Latourell Falls. I thought this was one of the prettier falls along the gorge. Unfortunately, on the way down from this hike..actually it was on the pavement after the hike (go figure!), I took a nice hard fall myself. I stepped sideways on a pebble or something on that path and twisted all the way around and landed HARD on my butt. Ouch! I was pretty stunned and when these nice people came up and asked me if I was okay, do you know what I said to them??? "Am I okay?, what about my camera?!" They must have thought I was insane. Anyway, whoever you nice people were, I thank you now.

Next up was a hike to Bridal Veil Falls. This hike was beautiful. Lots of  pretty streams with moss-covered rocks.

Bridal Veil Falls

The next falls was Wakeena Falls, which was also very beautiful There was a lot of spray coming off these falls, so I had to be quick with my camera! I actually ended up loving this point of view, below.

Next up was the most famous falls at the gorge...Multnomah Falls. I'd heard a lot about these falls and they definitely lived up to their name. My only other comment....crowded! Think almost Disneyland-like in some parts, only in a natural setting. I would like to come back here on another day....not the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend! In any case, they were stunning and we did make it up to the bridge in the photos below. We chose not to hike all the way to the top since we were on a pretty tight time schedule. Next time!

 

Our last stop was at Horsetail Falls. I think it was about 4 PM by this point. I would have loved to have gone further, but we had to double-back to Portland and head up to Mount Rainier before it got dark, and we had no idea what to expect weather-wise once we got up there.

A few hours later, around 7 PM, we found ourselves pulling into Mount Rainier National Park. I was very excited about Mount Rainier. I have come to realize that I have a very strong attachment to the mountains. I love the ocean, the desert, the jungle, the rain forest, etc., but I feel most at home and happy in the mountains. This is where I belong.

About 30 minutes after entering the park, the snow picked up and the visibility became iffy. We couldn't really see what was on the sides of the road, other than snow and haze. The snow started getting pretty heavy a few minutes later and it was getting dark. We passed the Paradise Visitor Center and ended up at the road closure pictured below. For a few minutes, we were rather concerned and at a loss as to what to do. We turned around, thinking we may have to drive all the way back out of the park and find somewhere else to stay, if the road to our hotel was closed off, but then, much to our relief, there is was, Paradise Lodge, right next to the visitor center partially covered in snow! Whew!

We were very happy to find the beautiful Paradise Lodge...especially with a big fire place lit in the lobby!

After we put all our luggage in our room (that had an amazing view of Mount Rainier, although at this point, we didn't know that), we headed down to the snack bar for a little dinner. That was about it for me and this day. Time for sleep, and thankfully, we didn't need to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

PNW Road Trip Day 3: Willamette Valley to Cannon Beach

Day three of our road trip was wine-tasting day! We had nine wineries on our wish list, one of which we visited yesterday, Benton-Lane. We ended up making it to six of the remaining eight on our list, including Archery Summit, Domaine Drouhin, Domaine Serene, Erath, WillaKenzie and Elk Cove. Unfortunately, we missed Willamette Valley Vineyards and Ponzi, but I am looking forward to visiting them on my next trip up this way.  Our plan of attack was mapped out the night before, we had our food supplies for the day and a good breakfast in our bellies, we were ready to go taste some Pinot Noir!.  As we were driving to our first winery in Dundee Hills, which was about an hour drive to the north of Corvallis, we came across this beautiful red barn set amongst a field of gold. This turned out to be one of my all time favorite photographs.

We pulled into Archery Summit just a few minutes after they opened. There weren't many people there yet, which was nice, since it was Memorial Day weekend, which is a big weekend for Willamette Valley wineries. They had lovely caves that we walked through to each "station," where they had a specific wine paired with a specific cheese and bread. Manchego! Oh, and the bathroom was so cool. I even took a photo of it (which didn't turn out that great but you can get the idea of it a few photos below..I also love how you can see me taking the photo in the bathroom mirror).

Our next stop was Domaine Drouhin. I had heard a lot about this place and their Pinots...it didn't let me down. Domaine Drouhin is in a gorgeous setting overlooking the Willamette Valley and surrounded by hills that have the most unreal colors. Oh, did I mention what a beautiful day it was? Picture perfect!

Look at these hills, such crisp and distint patterns and colors...and the sky...

A cool hand-crank grape crusher was at the front door, just waiting for me to take a picture of it. Look at that view. I sat outside on that patio with my wine and just took it all in.

This photograph below was another of my favorites from this trip. I'm not sure what it is about this photo. The sky almost looks animated. Again, rather unreal.

 Next up, Domaine Serene...which is probably an appropriate name most of the time. However, on this occasion, about 10 minutes into our visit, a large gaggle of LOUD giggling girls pounced out of a limo and invaded the place for about 20 minutes. The noise level went up a thousand fold. The Domaine Serene staff was not impressed by this display...a lot of eye-rolling ensued. Luckily, it appeared the gaggle was on a tight schedule, so they did not stay long. Thankfully, they were not headed in the same northern direction as we were.

Jerusalem Hills Pinot Noir...Yummy!

Next up was Erath Winery....lots of daisies in front!

Next up was WillaKenzie Estate, a little bit north of the main Dundee Hills area of wineries. There is a herd of long-horns on the property just as you turn into the estate. Cool!

Our last winery stop was at Elk Cove Vineyards, which is quite a bit north of the other wineries and perfect for our continuing drive to Cannon Beach, where we would stay our third night. I loved the name of this vineyard, La Boheme.

After all the wine-tasting was said and done, we headed about 90 miles northwest to the coast. It was a beautiful drive along heavily forested hills. We hoped to make Cannon Beach in plenty of time to take a long walk and take more photos (of course!).

Our last stop for the day, before heading to the Seashore Inn in Seaside for the night, was at Ecola State Park. Here, we were treated with a gorgeous view of Cannon Beach from the other side. A very nice way to end day three. 

Now...after a quick stroll around Seaside and dinner at a local restaurant, it was time to settle in for the night. Day four would be another long day. We were going to be up early and driving north to Astoria and then to the Columbia River Gorge...I can hardly wait!

Goodnight from the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail!