After Portland we found an awesome spot on Riffe Lake that was beautiful and surrounded on all sides by mountains. It was a pretty popular spot as it seemed a lot of locals came out for the day and to camp. It is also a landing zone for hang gliders. It was entertaining to watch them glide back and forth so quietly in the air. They made it look easy! The boondocking spots are just a mile or two from Taidnapam Park where we also were able to dump and get more fresh water for $5….Well actually it was only dumping but we sneakily got some fresh water too, leave a comment if you want to know how.
We went hiking around our campsite. Apparently the water level on Riffe Lake is low at this time and we were hiking around what appeared to be old building foundations. Was there a town buried under the lake? There were big trees that had fallen and made for some cool photos. We were trying to hike to an old cabin but every time we tried to find the path to it, it disappeared! We called it the Blair Witch cabin and said forget it. It was too creepy how it kept disappearing.
The drive to the Nisqually enterance of Mt. Rainier National Park only took about 40 minutes from Riffe Lake. At first we felt like we were driving through West Virginia as we passed by some of the locals homes. Once we reached the park we had some gorgeous views. When we got to Paradise visitor center it started snowing and we couldn’t see the mountain at all. We ended up going for a hike on one of the only trails open (which was covered in snow) and let Zygi play in it. Unfortunately all the footage we took for Zygi’s first snow experience got deleted because of my Chinese fleece lined pants. The skin on my thigh touches on my phone in my pocket and ended up resetting my phone because it tried to unlock it to many times.
We also went on a hike to The Grove of the Patriarchs which had some absolutely massive trees. They were Douglas firs, western hemlocks and western red cedars. Some of them were 1000 years old! We haven’t seen trees this big since we saw the Sequoias in California. It was a beautiful hike and we probably would have had it to ourselves but they were training seasonal rangers that day and they were sitting along the trail interviewing each other. It was still amazing, there is just something about trees like that which really impresses you. Victoria says she can feel the energy coming from the old trees.
We never got to see Mount Rainier. She hid behind the clouds the whole time we were there. Even on the day we left we saw a tiny glimpse of the behemoth but not the whole mountain. We were a little disappointed, but we had a good time anyways. We got to play in the snow with Zygi and saw some giant trees.
Next up, crossing the border into CANADA!
- Writers: Tim and Victoria
- Photographs, mostly Victoria’s but I took some too, with her directions, lol