Mount St. Helens & Mount Rainier

A stop along the drive

From Portland, we drove out to Mount St. Helens. It was a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive because we chose to go all the way out to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. There were other visitors centers that were closer to Portland and closer to our final destination (Packwood, Washington), but we couldn't resist the view Johnston Ridge offered.

For those who do not know: At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted and blew down or scorched 230 square miles of forest.

At the observatory / visitor's center where you can start you hikes

We didn't hike much around Mount St. Helens. We just went up the trail a bit to a higher view point - taking photos of some of the wildflowers along the way. We watched the 15-minute movie and meandered through the exhibitions.

After a couple of hours, we started our drive to Packwood, Washington where we were staying for our visit to Mount Rainier. It was another 3-hour drive to get there. As a crow flies, it's less than 60 miles away, but because of all the mountain ridges and rivers / streams, we had to drive almost twice that. There is a shorter driving route that takes the exact same length of time because of the winding roads -- all "forest roads." We had hoped to take that scenic route, but it was closed.

Packwood is a tiny town -- with 2 gas stations, 2 coffee huts, a grocery store and a few restaurants to accommodate the "tourists" but not much else. After checking into our motel, we went to the local pizza place. It was pretty good. After dinner, we went to the grocery story to get some drinks and snacks for the room, our drive and our hikes.

The motel was really nice. The Mount Rainier area was the only place we had a hard time finding a vacancy since we were booking so close to our actual trip. So, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the room. The complimentary breakfast was okay. The eggs and sausage were blah and the sausage gravy was pretty horrible. But they had a make-your-own waffle station, so that made up for it!

Mount Rainier - near Myrtle Falls

After breakfast, I had a quick work conference call. I was surprised to have such clear phone service because we didn't have service in most of the areas around Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. It certainly teaches you not to rely solely on technology (i.e. Google Maps on my phone), but we were prepared.

We got to the main visitor center and trailhead at Mount Rainier via a lovely drive through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We stopped at a number of scenic viewpoints along the way and then opted to hike some of the "easy" trails around the Paradise area. Perhaps I'm out of shape, the altitude was getting to me or we accidentally ventured onto some more strenuous trails...or all three, but the hike certainly got the better of me. The mountain ascends to 14,410 feet above sea level; our hike started at about 5,500 feet and seemed to be straight up.

The mountain was beautiful though along with the waterfalls, patches of snow and newly bloomed wildflowers. And it was a nice warm, sunny day although it started out a bit breezy. It definitely paid off to dress in layers. Despite putting on sunscreen, Scott and I both ended up with slight sunburns on our face and necks. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad.

After hiking for a few hours, we hopped back in the car, drove west through the remainder of the national park and forest area. It was another 3-hour drive to our hotel in downtown Seattle. We arrived at rush hour, but it wasn't too bad, especially since we could use the HOV lanes once we got close to Seattle.

I'll post soon about our time in Seattle -- perhaps tomorrow evening.