Mt. Rainier National Park

Having been awakened by the obnoxiously evil screech of crows this morning in our tent around 5:45, I figured it’s a good time to catch up on the last two days since skipping out of Seattle. So, I stepped out of my tent but suddenly froze! I was surrounded by the fierce beasts of Oregon, which had again overtaken our campsite in the night! Here’s one:

I’m not sure how they got here, but they are everywhere at the Sea Ranch RV Park, our most current temporary abode. They are terribly cute and completely domesticated, so they just wander sluggishly around camp, chomping on the grass, chasing each other around, and occasionally fleeing for their life from some camper’s dog, as happened last night.

We are currently in Cannon Beach, Oregon, after two busy days out of wireless range and on the road.

View Larger Map

Please allow me to catch you up:

On Friday, after another trip to Vérité, a little excursion through the winding hilly streets of Madrona, and a stop at the omnipresent Target for more camping supplies and Ramen noodles, we took a different route out of Seattle than planned. This was due to a slight oversight in correlation between Google maps and our GPS device, which I will hereby refer to by her proper name, Cate Blanchett (that soothing British accent is just so reassuring that it’s virtually impossible not to obey her every command). So we actually approached Mr. Rainier from the Northeast side of the park. After living the easy life in the city for the first couple days our trip, it felt wonderful to watch the Douglas Firs continuously increase in diameter the further south we got. When we started to see snow on the mountains across the gaping valleys, we knew we were getting close, and when we looked alongside our car a moment later, we realized that there was actually snow all around us. This was a strange feeling since the air was in the mid-50s easily. I guess when you receive hundreds of inches of snow a year, it takes pretty long to melt.

So we wound around through the park roads, climbing higher and higher until we rounded a bend to see an expansive vista stretching practically 180 degrees around us. There was Rainier itself, all snow-capped 14,411 feet of it.

Grizzly Bear - I Live With You


This Grizzly Bear track happened to be playing on the car stereo, and the timing of the music with the images around us made us feel like we were in a movie. That first glimpse of the peak is a sight that is impossible to express in photographic form, but there you are anyway. I think it has something to do with its unexpectedness as well as the feeling of being completely surrounded by the openness of the landscape.

So we continued through the park proper and found ourselves at the Ohanapecosh campground, named for the river, fed by meltwater from the mountain, that flows through it. Found ourselves a spot and paid our $15 for the night. It was 6 or so by the time we got to camp, which gave us enough time to set up shop and explore some of the trails there.

Damn hippies!

The area was, of course, pristine and gorgeous, the riverwater the clear aqua color of an antique Coke bottle. This is the Silver Falls, at the top of the mile-hike from camp:

We got back to camp and got a fire going, on which we boiled water to make some Ramen. This was quite a laborious process, but did the job. And we slept soundly in our tent on our Thermarest self-inflating sleeping mats, wrapped in our plush new 15-degree sleeping bags.
Then, yesterday morning, we got up early to drive along the south side of the park to get a view of the mountains from the other side:

There were some helpful signs along the way:

One of the lesser helpful ones, shown above, I believe translates to something like the following: “Beware: There are gigantic rocks that may fall from above without warning, crushing your vehicle with you inside it.” It is very beneficial to know this ahead of time, I suppose. We also picked up some good tips from The Tahoma News, which explained what to do in case you're confronted by a black bear. Turns out the correct answer is: "Do not run. Back away slowly. Talk loudly. If the bear attacks you and you have food, distance yourself from the food. If the bear attacks you and you do not have food, fight back aggressively. This is likely a predatory attack, and the bear is treating you as prey." This is similar to the advice they offer if attacked by a mountain lion, but in that case it elaborates: "Stay standing. Hit as hard as possible, especially to the head. Use a stick or rock as a weapon. Throw dirt in the eyes. Protect your head and neck."

Continuing onward, Cate Blanchett directed us west and then south across the Columbia River, then west again towards the coast of Oregon.

View Larger Map

We had some missteps on our way to the Sea Ranch RV Park, mainly because we didn’t know what it was called or where it was, and we hadn’t called ahead to make sure there were any vacancies. We drove around aimlessly in and around Cannon Beach for a half hour, calling for information and directions while Cate Blanchett dutifully recited her instructions procured from the satellites on high: “Turn right… turn left… turn left… recalculating… turn left, then turn left… recalculating… turn left… ” I love technology.

Eventually, with her help, we managed to find the place and snag the last tent camping site
available. And now here we sit.

I’ll leave you with a picture of my beautiful wife from our excursion to the beach yesterday evening after we got to the coast. She’ll have more pictures from last night coming soon.

-Josh