Western Adventure Summer 2009

For Tom Light

djhva — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:00:11 +0000

This is the first (?) U. S. Army air field, either in the US or in the west. They were famous for the two Russian pilots that landed here in the 30′s.

Mostly Travel Day

djhva — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:56:13 +0000

We left, reluctantly, Mount Rainier, and headed toward the middle of the Oregon Coast. 18 years ago we traveled from Washington boarder to Newport so… we decided to pick up our trip there and continue the rest of the coast to the California Redwoods.
Across Washington was slow going, followed by a bad meal in Vancouver WA and a walk around the old fort there. We stopped after slogging through traffic in Portland and Salem at a wild life refuge. Nothing new but saw a red-tail chase a great horned owl, that was entertaining.

Lots of beautiful coastline to explore here, delicate bridges and fog, sea birds and forest were all beautiful We stopped for the night in Florence. Had a wonderful meal in Banton!

Final Shots from Rainier

djhva — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:55:16 +0000

Mary’s Falls, Paradise Valley, Block Lake and Muir Base Camp

Paradise Inn

djhva — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:25:04 +0000

We stayed at Mount Rainier at their lodge, Paradise and the area was well named. The valley was stunning and the trails led up to the sub-alpine meadows and on to the first base camp for the climb to the top. You can also do this first leg as a day hike and I am sure CIndy & I would if we would have packed our ice shoes and ice axe. But you know the TSA so we stayed off the serious snow and ice fields.

The lodge was built in about 1917 and our room was very small with a hand sink. Showers were shared, two to a hall and the bathrooms were at the opposite end, about the same ratio.

They had a fellow playing the piano each night, offered tea and cookies in the afternoon and charge very high prices for food. Very high is not a pun! But still a great time and a nice piece of history.

Mount Rainier Day Three

djhva — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:23:38 +0000

Up early and off to see the Comet waterfall. This was a trek but what a pay off. We hiked just over two miles but passed five waterfall, the last being the goal for the morning. The Comet is 320 feet tall and shoots water out more than 40 feet. The scale, sounds and spray were all impressive. After we returned we tried the dinning room at Longmire for lunch and it was good, still expensive but good. Or else we were both starved. After getting cleaned up etc, we walked the trails behind the lodge, they are famous for the flowers and views of the mountain but the flowers here were past peak so we were glad to have seen the meadows at Sunrise. Also we could not go back because the road was closed for repair. One thing we did not expect was the snow. This is the latest there has ever been snow on the ground here, and not just a patch or two. On the ranger walk yesterday we traversed (note the technical terms here for you non-mountaineers) several snow field that were 50 feet or longer and some still had 3 feet of snow. On trail near the lake had 10 feet and a blocked trail. They had 850 inches here, but not a record and 30 feet on the ground at one point.

These flowers are from the Comet Trail.

On Comet Trail

djhva — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:13:53 +0000

The highlight of day three was the hike to Comet Falls. Just over a 2 mile ascent (900′) through beautiful forest led past five waterfalls. The last and namesake of the trail was 320 high with an amazing amount of water rushing out more than 50 feet from the side of the mountain.

The photos are from the walk up.

New BIrd

djhva — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 05:30:00 +0000

This is the Band-Tailed Pigeon. We were told they were only occasionally seen but we walked into the meadow & marsh trail at Longmire and there was a tree that had 25 or 30 of the B-T Pigeons perching on most branches. They were not too inspiring but it is a new bird, so it counts!

Marmot

djhva — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 05:15:40 +0000

I never saw one of these before and on the trail almost did not see this one cause it blends so well with the rocks, but he (she?) was not shy and stood patiently while I tried to photo the Marmot.

Mount Rainier Day Two.

djhva — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:32:14 +0000

This was an easy day for hiking, lots of short walks. We started at the meadows at Longmire and the Longmire Historical district about 8 miles away and then worked back up the road viewing several waterfalls and a couple of short jaunts. Lunch and breakfast were in the car with what we brought as food here is very expensive. We did try dinner and it was fair at best. We spent some time at the visitor’s center getting information and then took a longer ranger led walk to the Nisqually Glacier. There are some 30 named glaciers here and Emmons is the largest but Nisqually the most studied. Then we took a walk by reflections lakes and then a 1.3 mile hike to Bench Lake because there are Blue Grouse there, except I did not see or hear any! Typical here as there are not too many birds. It was nice hanging out in the large lobby and mezzanine with a very rustic atmosphere. They have tables that are about 20 feet long with chairs worthy of a king’s throne (or an elder’s chair!) and stunning painted lampshades that are about 10 tall.

Emmons Glacier

djhva — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 16:37:17 +0000

This is one of the larger glaciers. What looks like grey rock is actually ice and the tiny stream at the base is not really small but yards wide and forms one of the many rivers that are all glacier melt. The actually glacier is 100′s of feet thick. Snow in the area is the latest that snow has been recorded still on the ground.