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2006 Pacific Northwest Vacation -- July 23 through August 12, Part 2
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| My 2006 Pacific Northwest Vacation. Highlights included Lewis and Clark, the Tetons, Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, and a bunch of volcanoes. Lowlights included a motorcycle rally, a broken exhaust pipe and my car getting bit by a bear. 21 days, 6,700 miles. |
My experience at Mount Rainier started crappy, and ended crappy. It was a real good trip up until that point, having eaten lunch at the Ranch House BBQ, just outside of Olympia, Washington. (It's since been destroyed by a mudslide, but they're still in business: http://www.ranchhousebbq.net) Their pulled pork and potato salad is the best you'll find outside of the Southeast.
Then, the trouble began. We got to the lodge that we had reservations at, to find they didn't have a room. They kept records on paper with a pencil. They did have enough rooms for the tour group that was there, though. I made sure they got blasted on TripAdvisor. They finally did manage to find us a room at a Bed and Breakfast, then gave us the wrong directions on how to get there. Morons. We're lucky I had my reservation papers. It's a lodge named after one of the rivers that flow off of Rainier. I'll let you figure it out.
The next morning, we headed into the park. Unlike the day before, which was sunny and nice, it was raining and crappy. And cold. In July. (And the rest of the country was suffering in record heat. Figures.)
Worse, that cracked exhaust pipe that I started to develop at Pompeys Pillar cracked all the way through, and was echoing off the canyon walls like an engine with a cracked exhaust pipe. I'm sure I annoyed people. I tried my best to become invisible when others were around.
And I never did get to see Mt. Rainier. (That's partially untrue. I did see the volcano when I was at a rest stop on I-90, on the way to Seattle...) The clouds/fog never lifted. I was like in 1998, when I only saw the 'tons' in the Grand Tetons.
Well, not every part of a Road Trip can be perfect. :-)
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
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The morning was spent at one active volcano, the afternoon at another. Probably the most infamous in the United States, Mount St. Helens. There's a pull-off right at Hoffstadt Creek Bridge, which is the edge of the blast zone. Everything in front of us was pretty much wiped out during the 1980 eruption. We were looking at the newest land in the continental United States.
I have to say, Mt. St. Helens impressed me. While much of the devistation has been overgrown, the evidence that still exists does show much of what the volcano did. Many trees still lay flat away from the mountain, buried in the ash.
Without any reference, it's hard to fathom the the vastness of the volcano and the surrounding land. There was a hunter there, not hunting, but had a 35x monocular set up at one of the viewpoints. He called me over, had me look through the scope, and you could see Elk that weren't visible with the naked eye. He blew an Elk call, and 6 or 7 seconds later, they all looked up at me. So I was probably looking a mile-and-a-half out and most of the pictures here are 10-12 miles from the mountain.
We spent the night in Kelso, Washington, where I got a beautiful sunset over a Sears store in a mall...
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Observatory, Washington
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The next morning I got my oil changed, and was able to verify I had a cracked exhaust pipe, and since my muffler was in no danger of falling off, I left it that way. I would have to get it fixed, though.
We followed Washington SR-4 on the North shore of the Columbia River to the Pacific coast. We would pass right by the North Head Lighthouse on the was to Camp Disappointment, so we stopped in.
We were only about 90 miles South of Kaloloch as the crow flies, but it felt much longer since we detoured to Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens. North Head Lighthouse is part of Cape Disapointment State Park, and was built in 1898, after several ships saw fit to founder on the nearby rocks.
It affords wonderful views of the mouth of the Columbia River from the 130 foot high cliffs.
North Head Lighthouse, Washington
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This point was named Cape Disappointment by William Clark back in 1804, after spending several days on the bluff hoping to spot a passing ship. They wanted to send back copies of their journals and maps, and perhaps a member of the party, in case something happened to the Corps on the trek back across the West.
When no ship appeared, they named the place Cape Disappointment, abandoned the cape and headed a little further inland, and built Fort Clatsop to stay the 1804-1805 winter.
The park and interpretive center was still under construction, and wasn't scheduled to be completed until 2006. By 1806, Lewis and Clark and Company had already broken up and had gone their separate ways. Someone messed up here big-time.
Cape Disappointment State Park
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Having been to Fort Mandan, where the Corps wintered in 1803-1804, it was a natural extention to visit Fort Clatsop, where they wintered 1804-1805.
The Lewis and Clark National & State Historical Parks, is a series of sites along the Oregon coast that held significance to the Corps winter here. From Cape Disappointment to the North, to Ecola State Park to the South, where a beached whale was discovered.
And if you're wondering why the Fort looks so new, it's because the old one (and that one wasn't original either) burned down months before my trip. The Fort was up, but the rooms, nor anything in the interior of the fort was furnished.
We finally made our way to Seaside, Oregon, where we visted the Salt Works, part of the park that's maybe 15 feet on each side, and it looks like it's in someone's back yard.
Lewis and Clark National & State Historical Park, Oregon
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The Columbia River is the only sea-level path through the Cascade Mountain Range. That's why it was the preferred way to get from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, even in the time of Lewis and Clark.
In carving it's way to the sea, it dug out a gorge through the volcanic rock and ash from the multiple eruptions from Mount Rainier, Saint Helens and Hood. West of those mountains, the Columbia River Gorge is a wonder of forests and waterfalls. East of those mountains, like most mountain chains, it's a virtual desert.
It's not the wild river it used to be, multiple power generation dams have tamed it, but it's still a navigable river, the main drainage for most of the Northwest.
Columbia River Gorge, Washington
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Horatio Jackson spent the night of June 10, 1903 in Ontario, Oregon, where he found the railroad had delivered a new front spring, and four new tires.
I spent the night in Ontario on August 2nd on the internet, attempting to find a muffler repair shop in Idaho Falls that could repair my cracked exhaust pipe. I found one, Art's Muffler Shop, who opened at 7:30am and would charge me $30 for the repair. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The next day, we would make out way to Mountain Home, and cut across Idaho down Gooddale's Cutoff, a shortcut on the Oregon Trail. Today, it's called US-20.
Ontario, Oregon; Gooddale's Cutoff
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My most vivid memory of going down US-20 through Southern Idaho was... Construction. That bane of any road trip, we had just missed the convoy going East, and was stuck there for about 40 minutes. Even if I had known, there wasn't anything I could have done about it. There aren't exactly any plethora of roads through this deserted portion of the country.
The main reason for going this way, was to stop in Craters of the Moon National Monument, and actually get to EBR-1 when it was open. EBR-1 is open seasonally, and I had missed it by a week in 2001.
Regardless, it was a much more pleasant trip this time, even with the construction. The last time I was here, was on September 11, 2001...
I had explored much of this park in 2001, and was mainly here to take some panoramics and hi-def video. The winds were tremendous, however, and seemed to blow warm to hot to warm to hot...
Craters of the Moon National Monument
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Soon after you leave Craters, you enter a town called Arco, Idaho, the largest town in the area with just over 1000 residents. It has the unique distinction of being the first city to be powered by nuclear energy.
This was due to it's proximity to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, a vast empty plain where more than 50 nuclear reactors have been built, including the first breeder reactor, EBR-1 (short for Experimental Breeder Reactor #1.) On Dec. 20, 1951, the reactor became the first atomic reactor to generate a usable amount of electricity.
I was here in 2001, but the historic site is only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and I had missed it by a week. It was open this time, but since I was caught in that darn contrution I was only able to spend about 45 minutes there. Still, this place ushered in the modern era, and I was glad to have visited it.
EBR-1
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The next day, I got my exhaust pipe fixed, and all was quiet again. And it didn't even delay my schedule. I had breakfast at a place right next to Art's Muffler, and by the time I was done with breakfast, so was my car.
Just up the road was Yellowstone Bear World. The idea was to go to Bear World, and then take Idaho-33 and enter the Tetons from the backside.
Okay, why would someone visit Yellowstone Bear World? That's a pretty darn good question. I suppose it falls under my mantra of "Never judge an entertainment venue until you've seen it." Well, I've seen it, and I'm sure I'm not going back.
It's not a sanctuary, it's not a preserve. It has nothing to do with Yellowstone, as a matter of fact, it's 80 miles away from the park. It's really a travelling zoo. At least that's how it's classified, and that's how the owners were able to skirt the law to get the bears there. Personally, I thought it was a bit pitiful, especially at $17 a head. It's no different than going to your local zoo, and I'd rather go to my local zoo...
At one point, a bear bit my car. Yes, it bit my car. I still have the bite mark in my bumper. I've left there. How many people can say they had a bear bite their car? But of course, Yellowstone Bear World isn't responsible. If you read the disclaimers, the bear can break into your car, pull you out and eat half of you, and they're not responsible.
But it is a tourist attraction, and draws tourists there every day. I've seen a couple of bears in the National Parks, and they're rare, so I guess I can't blame the tourists from going to Bear World.
Yellowstone Bear World, Idaho
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Visiting Bear World wasn't our only reason for coming this way, we were also going to enter Jackson, WY from the back door, over Teton Pass.
The last time we were going to do this, we didn't. We were going to take Idaho-31 from US-26 at Swan Valley to Teton Pass. But it was 9/11/2001, I had no idea what the road was like, and as we looked at it from US-26, it was deserted. So we took the safe route around by following the US routes.
This time, we were going to go a little North of Rexburg, and take Idaho-33 through the potato fields, and down (or is that up) to Teton Pass.
The backside of the Teton Range
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We had been to the Tetons twice before, in 1998 and 2001. But we had never stopped in. We were always on our way to Yellowstone.
This year would be different. We were to spend three days and explore the park. We even had reservations at Jackson Lake Lodge, but only one night in a room with a view. And it was an excellent view.
Our first day wasn't more than getting over Teton Pass, doing a little grocery shopping and explore the Lodge and Resort. Oddly enough, I don't have that many pictures of the resort or the room, except for the view. Oh well. 1998 We ate dinner at the Pioneer Grill, and got served fresh strawberries with hot fudge and whipped cream. Mmmmmm.... To this day it remains a special treat.
Grand Teton National Park
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End 2006 Pacific Northwest Vacation Part 2
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