Mt Rainier National Park

The next leg of our Washington vacation started with a rainy morning in Spokane. We left early, since we'd be driving 300 miles to get to Mt. Rainier National Park. Rather than just going on I-90, we took a slightly more scenic route for part of the journey, through the town of Pasco to see the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers, before passing through Yakima and entering Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The air was a bit clearer than earlier in the week, and we had distant views of Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier from more than 60 miles away.

The vast farms of eastern Washington are interesting in their own right. Reminded us of North Dakota!

What trip through rural America is complete without a stop at a local produce superstore?! They have a kiddie roller coaster too....but it was closed until the fall. 😥

Views of Mt. Rainier as we approached the National Park.

We finally arrived in the national park in the late afternoon, and went straight to Paradise. While the national park is large, it has distinct sections that aren't directly connected. So we stuck to the southern portion of the park. It was very cloudy around the mountain (Mt. Rainier makes its own weather), so we couldn't see the summit, but we decided to do the Skyline Trail loop anyway. It's a great hike, with stunning views to the south, several waterfalls, wildflowers, and glaciers. It was quite cold near the top of the trail, and a bit of our hike was over snow despite being late July. Highly recommended hike!

A little black-tailed deer friend we met!

Views to the surrounding mountains.

Hello, buddy.

A huge waterfall and glacier. Mt. Rainier's summit is up in those clouds.

The upper portions of the trail were quite chilly.

Lots of wildflowers lined the trails.

Just a marmot hanging out.

Hikers on a snowy part of the trail.

Paul at Panorama Point.

A wide view looking up the trail.

It was like hiking up into the clouds!

Views for days.

There were lots of wildflowers on parts of the trail, especially in the wet valleys.

Stream, flowers, and mountains.

We saw about 5 or 6 marmots on the hike.

Another waterfall near the end of the trail.

After the hike we ventured into Ashford (the small town we were staying in) to look for something to eat. This town is very small, there's a general store and maybe 3-5 restaurants total. Most of the restaurants were already closed for the evening, and operations were impacted by COVID restrictions and the recent reopening of indoor dining, with noticeable lack of staff. The place we chose this evening was called Rainier Base Camp Bar & Grill. They had a cool setup, with a big open air eating location and ordering happening at a central location. Considering there weren't many options, this place was packed and service was pretty rough. We don't want to be too critical, because it's probably a good choice in better circumstances, but the staffing and COVID impacts were noticeable. They ran out of forks! 😂

After dinner we went back to our AirBnB and relaxed for the night. We had a hot tub, which was great after the day's hike. That evening, we made plans to go back to the same trail the next day early in the morning, hopefully for sunnier views - and we were rewarded with a brilliantly clear morning sky. We just did a portion of the loop trail this time, mostly looking for Mt. Rainier views.

A little bird family on the trail.

More wildflowers and mountains.

Yay! We can see the summit!

So much color in the brief summers here.

Brilliant view of Mt. Rainier - so different from the previous day.

We also had far views out to distant mountains. This is Mt. Saint Helens.

And Mt. Baker also looming in the distance.

Glorious early morning views of Mt. Rainier towering over everything.

One last look at the glaciers atop the mountain.

Next we went to the Rampart Ridge Trail, a 4.6 mile loop trail a bit to the Southwest. This was a nice forested hike, with a clearing near the top of the loop with great views of Mt. Rainier from a different angle.

Most of the hike looked like this, as we walked up and over a heavily forested ridge.

Views from the top of the trail.

A wetland section near the end of the trail.

We were lucky to have a brilliantly sunny second day in Mt. Rainier national park, since it had been so cloudy the day before. We definitely recommend at least two days here just to increase your chance of being able to see the mountain in its full glory.

After hiking, we went into town for lunch. We found a small Ukrainian restaurant called Paradise Village Restaurant. The woman running the place was quirky and made a mean iced americano. They have great crepes here, by the way! After more relaxing in the hot tub and some trip planning, we wrapped up our day with dinner in town at the Copper Creek Restaurant. Again this place was slammed and service was slow, but the staff there were very accommodating and the food was good. We'd recommend this place if you're visiting Mt. Rainier.

Complimentary "we're sorry service is slow" homemade blackberry pie! Yum!

After dinner we headed back to the AirBnB before our long drive the next day. If nothing else on this trip, we've been hiking uphill a lot! David's fitbit is cheering him on.

Oh, no biggie, just 200 flights of stairs in a day.

Next stop - Olympic National Park!

Spokane, Eastern Washington, and Idaho

After a few days in the North Cascades, we continued our road trip and ventured toward the eastern side of Washington. It's amazing how quickly the landscapes in the western US can vary, especially compared to the eastern half of the country. Leaving Leavenworth, the environment quickly changes from forests to farms to grasslands to desert within a few short miles. We traveled through these dry landscapes with the backdrop of smoke-filled skies from the wildfires.

Our first stop was in Dutch Henry Draw, a small canyon where we hiked to tiny Dutch Henry Falls. This was vastly different from our lake hikes in the North Cascades - it was essentially a short trek across a dusty desert to a small hidden waterfall. The tiny oasis below the falls was lush and filled with tadpoles, birds, insects and a random deer.

I don't think most people would guess this is Washington! You can see some wildfire haze.

The trail to Dutch Henry Falls.

A tiny waterfall and pool hidden in the desert!

Nearby Jameson Lake.

Continuing east, we went to Dry Falls State Park. This state park is at the site of a massive ancient waterfall created when glacial lake Missoula burst through ice dams and made its way to the Columbia River and the Pacific via massive floods. There is an observation area with exhibits explaining the geography of the area and images of what the falls would have looked like. The state park also hosts a few lakes along the water table with lakeside recreation and hiking trails. While here, we took a short hike to the Lake Lenore Caves. These shallow rock overhangs served as a good viewpoint of the valley. It was a short but very hot hike with no shade.

Huckleberry ice cream. Huckleberries is like blueberries, but can't be cultivated. A treat anytime we're in the northwest.

Overview from Dry Falls State Park.

A huge waterfall flowed over these cliffs thousands of years ago.

David at one of the cave entrances.

A view along the Lake Lenore Caves trail.

We went to three different caves.

Hanging out in the smallest cave! A nice break from the intense sun outside.

Resuming the trip towards Spokane, we passed through a few small cities and stopped briefly at the Govan schoolhouse. It's the one remaining building of a town that formerly had hundreds of people. It was a quick stop just a minute off the main road.

The Govan Schoolhouse.

We made it to Spokane by late afternoon, and took a walk around downtown and Riverfront Park. It was still very hot (Spokane has been in a heat wave since the end of June), which was a contrast to the last time David visited this city in summer and it was cool and a bit rainy. Overall, Spokane is a pretty nice place and an under-rated city. The downtown is larger and more walkable than you'd expect from an American city its size (only a few hundred thousand people). There are many restaurants, bars and shops in downtown, many of which were just reopening from COVID closures.

The nicest part of Spokane is the series of parks and venues along the riverfront. There are multiple miles of walking and biking trails along the rocks/cliffs near the river, and a large park that was part of Expo '74, the first world's expedition themed to the environment. After our walk, we had a great dinner at Wooden City, then returned to our hotel. This was by far the nicest lodging of our trip. We stayed at the Historic Davenport Hotel, a spectacular 1914 hotel that has been fully restored. The lobby is worth a visit even if you're not staying here.

View of our historic hotel.

Riverfront Park.

View of some of the falls.

So many good viewpoints!

The spectacular lobby of our hotel.

Dinner time! The food and drinks were great at Wooden City.

Pimento cheese dip at Wooden City.

The next morning we set out early for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (about a 40 minute drive east from Spokane) with the goal of visiting Silverwood amusement park. Silverwood is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and is the North American park with the most roller coasters that Paul had not yet visited. The park didn't open until 11AM, so we first stopped in downtown Coeur d'Alene and walked around for a bit and had breakfast at Honey Eatery and Social Club. We didn't have much time here, but it seemed like a cute little tourist city.

Coeur d'Alene's downtown is super cute and walkable!

Best breakfast place of the trip. David had Kimchi fried rice breakfast with pastrami!

Silverwood is a surprisingly good park. It's not that big, but has a couple of great coasters and some really well maintained landscaping. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to us, it was "Toyota Tuesday" where Toyota owners got free tickets. So the park was packed. We just got one ride on each coaster before heading out. The park had two wooden coasters, including Tremors, a unique ride with several underground tunnels. The standout ride is the new Stunt Pilot coaster.

Yay, roller coaster alley!

The new Stunt Pilot coaster.

Tremors wooden coaster.

This is a hill where the coaster comes from underground, crosses the path, and goes right back underground!

From Silverwood we drove north a bit before cutting back west and south to Spokane. We enjoyed the Idaho scenery, taking in views of the Pend Orielle River and stopping in the cute town of Sandpoint. We finished the day with dinner at Nudo Ramen in Spokane.

Matchwood Brewing Company in Sand Point, Idaho.

We stopped for a flight!

The Cedar Street Bridge Public Market in Sandpoint.

Dandan noodles and yakitori at Nudo Ramen House in Spokane.

For the next part of our Washington trip we again drove across the State towards Mount Rainier National Park, where'd we'd spend a few days. More to come!