Day 11 - Tacoma WA to Pendleton OR
Day 11 - 27 June 2006 - Tuesday
--- Starting in Tacoma, Washington ---
We slept in a bit to try to avoid rush hour, then we braved the
scary traffic to see Seattle.
Of course you can't go there without seeing the
Space Needle:
We stopped into the Pike Place market. Kristina's sisters both
took pictures of this stand, so I'll include a picture of it:
You could look out across Puget Sound and see the Olympic Mountains,
where we were yesterday.
We tried to go to the Klondike
Gold Rush National Historical Site but it was no longer there!
It turns out it had moved down the street and the grand re-opening
was two days after we were there.
Here is a view of the Seattle skyline, including the baseball stadium
(with a retractable roof!):
We drove to the beginning of I-90, and across the part of it that's
a floating pontoon bridge.
Done with Seattle, we started driving toward our next destination, Mount
Ranier, which you can see from Seattle on a clear day. It turns
out that one of Kristina's sister's college friends lived right near
where we were, in Puyallup. They were very kind, and let us visit
for a while (and fed us too!).
We then continued on, but then had a bit of an adventure because
Kristina's mom forgot her purse, so there was some back and forth
with cellphones and racing around until we got it back. But after that,
it was onward to
Mount Rainier National Park. Here is what it looks like,
with some foreground snow to make it look like winter:
We drove in from the south-west, and first stopped at
Christine Falls:
Our destination in the park was Paradise. Believe it or not Paradise
was under construction, including some paving for a new visitor center.
They were replacing the old visitor center, which they admitted was:
We then went hiking on the Nisqually Vista Trail. The trails were
all still completely covered in deep snow:
It turned out that trail above was the wrong one, so we backtracked
and found the proper trail.
The trail gave us a great view of Mt. Rainier and the Nisqually Glacier.
Here you can see the glacier coming down the mountain, and the
meltwater at its base (very cool!):
Here you can see other waterfalls coming down the mountain from snow melt:
We had a lot of fun on these trails
(and snowball fights!), but all too soon we had to leave
Paradise. Continuing on, we saw Narada Falls:
And here's a look back at the mountain:
We stopped at Box Canyon. Here there were glacial striations on the
rocks, and a really narrow canyon:
And then we left the park. Luckily the part of the road that was closed
was north of the exit, so we could leave the convenient exit.
We continued out, and over the White Pass. Near there we passed
a forest fire:
We continued on the
very mountainous US 12 until we got to Yakima. We stopped at Yakima
at Mel's Diner for supper.
We kept driving, now we were in a more desert-like climate, but
we were along a river so things were heavily irrigated. A lot
of the famous Washington Apples come from this region. We passed
through Prosser, Washington, and soon we were back in Oregon
for the last time.
--- Entering Oregon ---
We crossed the Columbia river, and stopped in Pendleton Oregon at
the Motel 6. Luckily we found a room there, despite a big car-related
event going on.
--- Ending in Pendleton, Oregon ---
Continue on to Day 12