Washington Coast Drive

During my folks visit we decided to take a trip to the Washington coast. Our first stop was in South Bend to see the Pacific County Courthouse. When we got there, it was covered in scaffolding while undergoing renovations.

If you can read Roman numerals, you can see that it was built in 1910.

We walked into an entry way that lead to a rotunda. The entry way had some small murals. The doors leading off the rotunda each had a decoration like this over it.

This is the middle of the floor.

The stained glass dome roof. Notice the PC. Pacific County

The far door had curved stairs going up each side. Where they met the wall had a stained glass window with PC in it and there was stained glass above the landing.

The gardens had some nice shrubbery. Some Japanese maples too.

Looking out the front door.

Our drive continued and we came up on this crew replacing the reflectors in the middle of the road. You can see the guy reaching out to place the reflector in the puddle of tar he just sprayed.

We went to Nahcotta on the Long Beach Peninsula to see the Willapa Bay Interpretive Center but it was closed. The road to it was on the jetty where all the oyster boats come in. Anyone want an oyster shell?

Oyster boats in dock.

We wanted to eat our picnic lunch and were looking for a park with restrooms. There was a sign on the Interpretive Center telling us, so we thought, that the restrooms were by the Post office. Actually we all read it wrong. The park was by the Port Office just on the other side of the jetty.

After lunch we headed to Long Beach. Although it was sunny on the east side of the Peninsula, the beach was cloaked in fog. Very thick fog.

A few people were flying kites, some of which were huge!

The tide was out so we had to walk across the mud flats to get to the water.

When we came back from our walk, someone had hoisted this beautiful kite. It twirled around as the wind blew through it.

As we left Long Beach and headed south on Hwy 101, we entered the town of Seaview and I spotted this very, very interesting tree at the Lions Paw Bed and Breakfast. When we got home, I looked at the B&B's web site and found out the tree is a Monkey Puzzle Tree, a native of Brazil and Argentina.

Just look at all the cones on the top of the tree.

Look at the scaly "leaves".

And they rotated as they came down the branch.

I looked up the trunk of the tree and you could see how the bottom of the scales stayed attached to the branch after the leaf died. Kinda like palm tree fronds on the trunk.

Our drive continued south on Hwy 101 and we drove across the Columbia River to Astoria, OR. I believe the odometer reading was 2.5 miles across the river.

At one point the bridge arches to allow large boats to navigate the river.

The road curled around to this stop light where we headed east on US 30, the same road that goes through the Iowa town we lived in before becoming full-time rvers.

We followed US 30 until we could cross over this bridge to Longview, WA. There were several freighters on the water just before the bridge.

Wood was stacked along the river on both sides of the bridge.

Mt. St. Helens - Windy Ridge

The trip to Windy Ridge had us driving east to Randle and going south on Forest Service Road 25. Just a river along FSR 25.

My parents were on the trip with us.

The bridge over the river was wooden!

This temporary bridge was made across Benham Creek. Look at all the damage from mudslides.

We turned onto FSR 99 towards Windy Ridge and stopped at a view point called Bear Meadow.

Mt. St. Helens from Bear Meadow.

Telephoto

We stopped at another point and we could see Mt. Hood in OR. Notice the Noble Fir tree on the right. The pine cones stand straight up and almost look like birds perching on the branches.

Wildflowers along the way.






We stopped at a viewpoint called Cascade Peaks and saw three of the highest peaks in the Cascades.

This "motorhome" had foreign plates.

At Windy Ridge, we climbed to the top of these stairs.

Dad and I halfway up.

Are they ever going to end? We each counted the steps on the way down but didn't get the same number. It's between 434 and 450.

Once at the top of the stairs, we walked the trail to the viewpoint.

String the following pictures together and you would have a panoramic shot of what it looked like from the top.
Part of Mt. St. Helen on the right.

Rest of Mt. St. Helen and some of Spirit Lake.

Still Spirit Lake.

Rafts of logs were trees that were blown into the lake when Mt. St. Helens blew.

A trail leading from the viewpoint.

Mt. Rainier as seen from Windy Ridge.

This flower is Fox Glove.

Kerry Park, Locks and Gardens

We headed out of downtown Seattle and went up Queen Anne's Hill to Kerry Park. This is a scenic overlook of downtown. It's a good place to see the Space Needle.

Off to the west in Puget Sound and we saw two ferry boats leave the docks at the same time.

We went on up the road and stopped at Marshall Park to look off the Betty Bowen Viewpoint. Saw a cruise ship in port.

Across the road is the Parsons Memorial Garden. We checked out the flowers along the walk.

Using Google maps, I had made directions to the next place but we decided to let our GPS lead us there. OMG! It lead us down some narrow windy streets. Good thing we turned before we came to the parked UPS truck!

This road isn't bricked, it's stoned! Yes, it's on a grade too.

We made our way down to a street with this huge retaining wall.

But the GPS got us to our destination.

It's pay parking so we had to figure out how to run the machine to get a parking fee receipt. We finally got it on the third try.

The locks are a Corps of Engineers site. We went through the visitor center and read about what the COE does and how the locks were built.

There are two locks... one for large ships and one for smaller boats. This is the large one and we didn't see any ships come through while we were there. Notice the mossy sides!

When the lock was closed, you could pass over it to the next lock and then over to the fish ladder.

Mostly we saw personnel going in and out of this building alongside the lock.

Here comes a boat for the small lock. Notice the railroad bridge in the background. We couldn't figure out what the thing on the right was.

Here's a closer view of when it was raised to allow a boat to pass under.

There was a spillway too.

Oh back to the locks. The lock crew tells the boats which side they need to tie down to and how far in to go so they can get as many boats as possible into the lock.

There were four boats in this lowering. Notice where the boats are tied.

Now notice that the tie post lowers with the water. I haven't been around locks before and hadn't thought about how the moorings need to raise and lower with the water.

A couple float planes flew over.

Lots of sea gulls so every lamp post has wire spikes to keep them from landing. Even this fire hose enclosure had them.

The gardens are around the locks.

We didn't get a photo of the roses.

Don't know the name of this tree but it's unusual.

Seattle Underground Tour

Bill Speidel's Underground Tour was our next stop. It is in the Historic Pioneer Square area and has a lot of Victorian buildings. Notice the Pioneer building arch.

Bill Spiedel helped save the historic buildings when they were about to be razed to make room for more modern buildings. Right behind the fire truck is the "sinking ship" parking garage. An historic hotel stood on this spot before it was razed and, with that, people started to get concerned about the other historic buildings in the area.

Another photo that shows the "sinking ship" parking garage. That might be Smith T0wer behind it.

This covered walkway is called the Pergola and was constructed for the 1909 World Fair.

The top of the parking garage and maybe Columbia Center. No one was pointing out the buildings and telling us the names so I'm guessing.

The Pioneer Building as seen over the parking garage. It's called the Sinking Ship parking garage because of its shape.

Seattle had a fire in 1889 that destroyed 25 square blocks of the town. Now, at that time, Seattle was build on tide flats and, even though they used flush toilets, there wasn't an adequate sewer system. After the fire the city council wanted to move dirt from the upper hills to fill in the lower area and improve the sewer system but it was going to take 10 years and the merchants weren't willing to wait quite that long.

Many people gathered in this old bar for the tour we took. The guides spent about 45 minutes giving us a short history of Seattle and the tour. The merchants rebuilt before the land was raised but the city then raised the streets and the lower floors of all the buildings became basements. That's why there's an underground.

Isn't this old bar beautiful?

Once underground, we looked up through skylights that were placed in the sidewalks..

Basement of a bank where there was a vault. Noticed the arched brick ceiling. These supported the sidewalks.

This room was once a general store.

Seattlites loved their crappers.

To the right you can see the front of a building.

One of the grates stored in the underground.

After the tour we ended up in the museum where we read about Seattle's history.

Seattle Trip

Time for a trip to Seattle to see some of the sights but on the way we stopped at Downtown Harley-Davidson to meet a Women on Wheels® member. This dealership looks pretty new.

Right next to it is this dealership that sold a lot of brands. I'm sure it's the same owners and Harley forced them to build a different building. They do that.

Some of the helmet stickers the WOW gal had on her helmet.

Although it was 11:45 a.m, the roads were parking lots in places.

WOW, I didn't know Seattle was built on hills and the trip down this road was interesting to say the least. I was glad we weren't on our bikes. We were told it's only an 18% grade but that must be overall and not on the street between the intersections.

After finding a parking garage for the car, we took a walk to Pike Place Market. There were several shops that were selling fish.

Then we wandered down Pike Place and I noticed the beautiful flowers on the tops of the buildings. Very nice.

Another seafood store.

During the walk back to Pioneer Square, we saw a break in the buildings where we could look out over Puget Sound.

Although we did some more sight seeing, I'm leaving those photos for other posts. Here's what we saw when we left town. I finally got a good photo of one of the electric buses. Most of the streets have the electric lines over them so I suppose most of the buses are electric.

This one was one of those "accordian" buses. You know, the ones that bend in the middle.

We started south on I-5 but then headed off on Hwy 502 where we saw this interesting intersection.

Doesn't it look like one span of the bridge just ends over the water?

This is why we took Hwy 502. We wanted to go over the longest floating bridge in the World!

Before we got to the floating section, we had to go up and over the bridge where boats can cross under. Interesting how it curves.

Saw this "art" along the road.

And these condos on the water.

Ok, down to the floating section we go. ... Really didn't notice any difference but at least we can say we were on it.

Then we headed south on I-405 and went over this snaggled intersection with I-90. The I-90 floating bridge into Seattle is being repaired so it was down to two lanes.

We had lots of fabulous views of Mt. Rainier but it really doesn't photograph well....at least by me.

Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was established by Congress in 1982 to protect natural features and processes and provide access for recreation, research and education. The monument has become an internationally renowned laboratory for the study of earth processes and ecosystem recovey following large-scale disturbance. Access to the area north of the volcano is restricted to allow natural processes to proceed unimpeded and protect scientific research.
You may remember where you where when Mt. St. Helens erupted but until you visit the site, you can not comprehend the magnitude of the blast. Most of the words in this post are from the Volcano Review, a park visitor guide. The mountain lost 1300' of height and 0.67 cubic miles of total volume.

Here's what Mt. St. Helens looked like before May 18, 1980.

The following is a sequence of photos as the eruption occured. Starting in March of 1980 there were lots of earthquakes under the volcano and a small vent formed.

At 8:32 a.m. the north face of the mountain began to slide downhill.

The eruption began with a massive landslide (debris avalanche) that buried 14 miles of river valley to an average depth of 150'.

The landslide released trapped magma and gas, producing a sideways explosion (lateral blast) of hot rocks and ash killing trees up to 17 miles north of the volcano.

The eruption leveled 230 square miles of forest in less than 10 minutes.

A vertial ash eruption rose to a height of 15 miles above the crater and continued for 9 hours. Ash drifted to the northeast.

Cement-like slurries of glacial melt water and boulders called lahars scoured and buried streams draining the volcano. Fiery avalanches of pumice and hot gasses called pyroclastic flows flowed into the valley north of the crater.

Fifty-seven people died because of the eruption. One of the most memorable was a man called Harry R. Truman who had a lodge on Spirit Lake. He refused to leave and stayed with his 16 cats. He did not survive. Others were NFS volcano watchers or people not in the restricted area around the volcano. The mudflows down the river valleys swept away homes.

The massive landslide that triggered the eruption buried 14 miles of river valley and created 150 new lakes, ponds and wetlands. This new habitat has powered a rapid resurgence of life - creating the most biologically-rich landscape in the monument. It is home to a diverse array of amphibians, birds, insects and at least 140 plant species.

Predators such as hawks, owls, coyotes, bobcats and weasels search the 230 square mile blast area for small mammals. Small mammals play a vital role in ecosystem recovery by feeding on plants, creating burrows, dispersing seeds and concentrating nutrients in their droppings.

Fish populations rapidly rebounded in steep mountain streams that were smothered by volcanic ash. Rapidly flowing water flushed ash from channels exposing cobbles and gravels that are important for spawning and aquatic insects -- a primary food source. Fish have also benefited from pools and riffles formed by blown-down trees and pleantiful food in the open sunny, blast area.

Large herbivores like elk and deer are modifying plant communities around the volcano. By selectively and heavily over browsing some plant species verses others, and through their trampling and ground disturbance, elk are profoundly influencing plant succession at Mount St. Helens.

This is the Blast Zone.

Although the blast area is untouched by humans as an experiment to see how nature recovers on its own, much of the rest of the land affected by the eruption was owned and used by lumber companies.

Mt. St. Helens and the river valley from the Forest Learning Center parking lot.

As seen from Johnston Ridge Observatory.

One ridge where the trees on the south side were blown over and the trees on the north side were killed by the hot air. The trees closer to the eruption were snapped from their trunks and became part of the debris carried in the lateral blast.

We found this little fellow along a trail. He sat about 5' from us and calmly ate his flower. The only other wildlife we saw was a snake on a different trail.

The stumps left after the blast.

Noble fir that were planted after the blast. I just thought they looked like an oil painting.

Wenatchee to Mossyrock

Our first stop on the third day of our trip was Liberty Orchards in Cashmere, WA. They make candy and have tours.

The tour was real short and started in the baking room where they were making Aplets. This is an apple candy. First it is poured out into pans about 3/4" deep.

After cooling the candy sheets are ran through this machine where it is cut into pieces and then rolled in powdered sugar before falling into a tub.

The tubs are put in front of people that pack the candies into the boxes.

A gal at the end was putting on the box tops.

Each box was inspected before being put into packing boxes.

Here Nolan models the hair nets we had to wear while on the tour.

We wandered around the gift shop/store where I found what I wanted. But they were kinda pricy so I left them on the shelve.

The box of pecan carmel clusters that Nolan wanted cost $20 so he was greatly disappointed.

Next we headed south on Hwy 97. It runs though the Wenatchee National Forest so there was plenty of green and nice curvy roads.

At Ellensburg we got on I-90 for a short distance before getting on SR 821 which runs through a canyon down to Yakima. In this photo you can see I-82 which parallels SR 821.

Along SR 821 we found some hop fields.

After Wenatchee we got on Hwy 12 and headed west. They had to hold back the rocks at this spot.

This is the upper falls.

And the lower falls.

Saw these interesting flowers at this stop but I haven't identified them yet.

This one is further open.

An information panel told us a story

What we were supposed to look at...

What we could really see. It was raining so visibility was terrible.

A vertical stream across the canyon.

Where Clear Creek goes after the falls.

Look at the rock pile at the bottom of the cliff. They look flat like they are slate but I don't know what they are.

At this viewpoint it was raining hard so we didn't even get out of the car.

Got photos anyway. We'll have to go back when the weather is nicer.

Goldendale to Wenantchee

The second day of our trip we headed north from Goldendale on Hwy 97. At first there were plenty of evergreen trees.

But before long, all we saw was brown.

Just south of Toppenish we caught this glimpse of what I think is Mount Adams.

There are currrently 70 murals in Toppenish. Every year they paint a new one during their Mural-In-A-Day event held the first Saturday in June.

We walked around a took photos of a few. This is titled "The Rhythms of Celilo".

The Old Saturday Market.

Hot and Dusty Work

Yakima Leaders

Ok now each mural will be proceeded
by its sign.

We could have taken this wagon ride to hear about all the murals.

This is the American Hop Museum

Even it had a mural on the side.

Outside the museum they were growing hops.

First we watched a video about hops. It was very informative.

Hop roots have been known to live up to 30 years but are usually replaced around nine to twelve years for more efficient crop production.

Propigation is accomplished by root stock division from previous years growth on established roots. In the spring, farmers dig up new runners and cut 6 inch sections being sure to include two 'eyes' to insure growth.

There are two main groups of hop varieties, Aroma and Alpha. Nugget is one type of Aroma hop.

Old photos of how the hop trellises are made.

Stringing of the lines that run down to the hop.

In mid-June the hops are trained to run up the strings.

The string is made of coconut husks.

When the hops are ripe, the strings are cut about 1 foot from the bottom and then a wagon is run under it and the strings are cut at the top.

The hops are ran through a variety of machines to separate them from the vine and leaves.

The hops are laid out on the kiln floor where hot air is forced up through the layers to dry them.

This flow chart shows how hops are processed for different uses.

They had a wide variety of beer tap handles.

The gift shop had lots of interesting items. Hop asparagus is tender shoots that have been pickled.

Our next stop was the Teapot Dome gas station in Zilliah. As the AAA book says, "This architectual oddity was built to parady the Wyoming oil lease scandel of the early 1920's."

Obviously it is no longer in service.

Nolan just had to go peek in the window.

Just north of Yakima on I-82 we stopped at a rest area. It had a good view of Mount Adams and Mount Rainier. Well it would have had if there weren't clouds in the way.

Mount Adams.

Mount Rainier.

Also visible from the rest area is the Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge, one of the longest concrete arch spans in the nation.

With Mount Adams in the distance.

Then we went to Vantage.

We didn't find most of the logs around the visitor center to be as pretty as the logs at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. These weren't as agatized.

From Vantage we crossed the Columbia River on this bridge.

Our car with the cliffs that face the Columbia.

Just north of where we crossed the river we stopped to see the sculpture named "Grandfather Cuts Loose The Horses".

There was a trail to the top of the hill so we climbed it. It was very steep with lots of loose rocks so it was very difficult to climb.

We continued our trip north by taking SR 281 off of I-82. For that ten mile stretch the crop names were posted. We saw, coriander, alfalfa, grain corn, field corn, potatoes, cherries, sugar beet seeds, green peas and beans. The next 8 photos are from along SR 28.

Rock Island Dam

Don't ya just love the rock walls? These are loose rocks encased in wire fencing.

Notice how the crops are grown anywhere they can find a halfway level spot.

Our last stop of the day was Rocky Reach Dam. The AAA book said they were open until 5:30 but when we got there at 3:05, we were told the museum closed at 3:30 and the visitor center closed at 4! We did a very quick tour of the museum and only left when the guard chased us out. We weren't the only late visitors.

The Rocky Reach Dam is a Z-shaped structyure 2,860 feet long.

There are gardens surrounding the dam and its buildings.

Don't ya just love this flower bed?!

PUD stands for Public Utility District. We had seen PUD trucks the first day of our trip and had laughed at the acronym.

There was an underground viewing area where we saw fish swimming up and down the ladder. It was hard to see them in the murky water. I would have liked to have watched the movies in their theater but we were chased out of the visitor center.

We did wander around the gardens checking out the flowers.

Washington Side of Columbia River Gorge

We had three days off so we decided to take a trip. First we went south to drive SR 14 along the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge.

Last week we visited Vista House. This week we are looking at it from the Washington side. See how it's perched on a cliff. The road actually goes around it.

The next three photos are from the same point . Start with this one and the next three are actually to the right of the first.

It's a cloudy day so the view isn't as good as it would be if it was sunny.

This is the first time we had ever seen a sign like this.

I spotted this eagle on a branch as we passed by and I walked back to get a photo. I got one and then it flew away.

We forgot to get a photo of Beacon Rock but we climbed it.

Purchase price was $1.

Pretty nice trail as we started our climb

Nice rock wall.
















Oh boy it looks like the trail is about to get a LOT steeper!

Part of the trail was dirt, some was asphalt and some concrete. Some bridges were made of concrete and some were made of wood. Is the climb making you tired yet?

A look at the river part way up the trail.

What about now?

We were tired and sweaty by the time we made it to the top. I just wished it had been sunnier so the view would have been nicer. Well then it would have been hotter, huh? Maybe not.

Somee photos from the top.

More about how high the great pre-historic flood would have been. Above the pictures is this caption, "Imagine standing here 15,000 years ago. A thunderous roar fills your ears. In the distance, a torrent of mud and ice hundreds of feet high bears down on you at 60 mph."

Nolan using the fence as a support.

Ok we head back down but this time I'm counting switch backs. See here how there are different surfaces. The top one here is very rough stones and it's the roughest spot we came across. The next is asphalt with a wooden bridge. On the way down we met a woman that said she used to live nearby. She told us that Mr. Biddle didn't use mules or any other animals to help him get all the supplies up the rock. I'm surprised it didn't take 10 years to build the trail!

Double-click to enlarge this one and count the number of layers. There's a couple that switch to the left and cross under the upper tier. Our final count for the journey down the rock (if we counted right) was 51 turns of more than 90° and there are at least as many under 90°.

As we headed east on Hwy 14 we turned back to get this distance shot of Beacon Rock. It really doesn't show you how it sticks out from the other rocks.

We passed by Bonnevile Lock and Dam.

Next we visited the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center by Stevenson. The display for this model reads, "Launched at John Holland's Yards in Seattle, the Bailey Gatzert plied the Columbia each day leaving Portland at eight and docking at The Dalles at three, and returning to Portland at nine-thirty at night. The fare was one dollar."

There was a large display of saws.

Look at those worn down solid rubber tires!

Notice the heel rest.

Only two gauges. Ours has 18 or 20!

On display was the household contents of a Russian Baron's home. This Swiss cabinet of inlaid wood is approximately 200 years old and is the life's work of a craftsman.

Some of the cabinets detail.

American flag made out of rosaries.
There were at least six cabinets full of rosaries! Must have been 4,000 of them!
My favorite

After the museum we continued on our trip. Just some scenery.

Notice the rock wall along the road.

Then notice the low rock wall on the right side of the road.

Then we started going through tunnels. Notice the train tunnel does have a fancy stone front.

Windsurfers by Lyle.

Bridge from Dalesport to The Dalles, OR.

Notice how the land is becoming drier. We're on the east side of the Cascades now.

We stopped at a rest area and got some nice photos. Notice the train in the middle left.

The train went directly below the rest area!

Across the river you could see I-84 and more train tracks.

While I was taking the previous photos, a train was headed eastbound on the opposite side of the river.

There are sometimes lakes between the road and the river or the road is between a lake and the river.

The last tunnel we went through on hwy 14. Notice it is actually two tunnels with a short break in between.

Only the second barge we saw during the day. This one is heading upstream.

I was trying to get photos of the brown hills and took this one out the back driver's side window. Didn't know the deer were there until I downloaded the photos to the computer.

We stopped at the Klickitat County Information Center and view point.

That's I-84 and the train tracks across the river again.

Mount Hood is hiding behind some clouds.

The Maryhill Museum of Art was about to close when we got there so we didn't go inside.

There were 6 or 7 peacocks roaming the grounds.

We did look at the sculptures.

Just look at how old tools were used to make this sculpture.

No this isn't a sculpture. Just a peacock posing. It was way too windy for any of them to have their tails spread.

The next stop was Stonhenge. No not the English one but a replica of how the original would have looked when it was intact. It was built in 1918.

There are plaques to honor WW II veterans on the inside of the inner walls.

A view from Stonehenge.

The next stop was the Goldendale Observatory State Park. This is Mount Hood as seen from the park.

Goldendale Observatory State Park where we peeked at stars. It was the wrong time of year to peak at the stars. It isn't full dark until almost midnight since summer solstice is just a few days away.

We ended this first day of our three day trip at Goldendale.