WOW! There is a mountain there

5/30/2021

WOW!! There is a mountain there. As stated in the last post on our way home from Mount St Helen’s we were able to see Mt Rainier for the first time. Yes, we were in the park on Friday but with the rainclouds fog and SNOW we couldn’t see any distance at all especially up.

Today with no perception in the forecast we headed back towards the park. This time we entered the eastern edge  simply because a sign said 2 mountain passes that direction were open, so up the hill we went.

Both passes were dry and small streams falling off the rocks and into the drainage ditches. Did I mentlion the snow along the roadways, lots of it toooooo. And with better visibility, WOW the views. We really didn’t realize what we missed on Friday.

Once beyond the 2 passes we drove towards Sunrise lookout, knowing it was closed but wanted to see how where the road was closed at, not much to see from down in the valley. Next up was Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, that was a waste of time so it was back towards home with one other side trip in mind.

On Friday the road from Paradise to the east side of the park, where we are now, was closed, today no closed sign from this end so up the hill we go. The first thing we noticed was all the cars, they have an entrance gate here and they had 3 lanes 2 for people needing to pay and one for pass holders, like us.

At the first wide spot in the road cars were lined up EVERYWHERE, had to go slow and watch out for all the people not looking where they were walking.

On Friday I thought the road was closed because of snow as we neared the top we had to go through a one lane construction area with the mobile stop lights, I’m sure the road will be closed again on Tuesday as the construction crew goes back to work.

Once we reached the top and turned toward Parodice it was super busy, we just did a quick (haha) drive through the parking lot.

I almost felt sorry for this guy, almost. Now tell me why you would pull your 30ish ft camper up a very narrow steep road to the top of a mountain. Anyway, cars are parked everywhere, lining the parking lot all the spots full dozens or cars looking for a parking spot and here is this guy with his camper trying to make a really tight turn backing up, pulling forward. Like I said I almost felt sorry for him but on the flip side he had no business with his camper up there!

We went back down the mountain and towards home, the same road we took on Friday. At that entrance gate…. the line of cars. It was atlas a mile and half long, probably closer to 2 miles long to get in the park. I’m clad we were headed home.

The End