Walking past the park lodge, the trail began in trees, then open meadow with wildflowers and then ascending via a series of switchbacks. The sun had finally come out so thought let’s do one more trail. The trail climbs just over 1,000 feet and we were halfway there but in the distance storm clouds were coming our way. We decided to ascend back down before the cold rain got here. We heard marmots whistling just off the trail and had closer views of the Phantom Ship. When we got to the visitor center, the fast-moving clouds and drizzling rain began. The clouds totally obscured Crater Lake. Inside the center, I posed by a funny Bigfoot carving
All the trails around the volcano crater rim were at least 7,100 feet high. This 2.2 dirt trail, an extension of the Rim Trail, was rated easy with several small climbs of only 100 feet. The trail wove along the southwest rim sometimes through wild bark pine trees and sometimes in the open. It was a rare cloudy, cold, and windy day. Sometimes the sun would briefly poke through and give us a spot of warmth. The entire time, especially at Discovery Point, we had outstanding views of the lake, Wizard Island, and the Phantom Ship to the east in the distance. Back in 1990 when I first visited Crater Lake by myself, I made a pledge that I would return some day with my wife and re-propose to her. So today, 31 years later I did that. I knelt and reproposed to Rosie. Later we stopped by the park visitor center, and I bought her a beautiful ring to commemorate the occasion.
This 1.6-mile moderate dark dirt trail off West Rim Road was a tough 420-foot climb at this altitude. The peak ridge gave us 360 degrees view of crater lake and the surrounding landscape. When 12,000-foot Mt. Mazama erupted and collapsed long ago, it created Crater Lake which is the deepest lake in the USA at 1,943 feet deep. Rim Drive was only open 75% of the way as the East Rim Road area was closed due to snowfall and needed repairs. The strong dropped the temperature to 46 degrees. Still on the upper part of the trail, there were many patches of wildflowers. The final 70 feet of the trail up to the fire lookout tower was closed due to icy snow on the trail.
This is where the UFO phenomena began. That’s right, back on June 24, 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying by Mount Rainier on his way to Yakima, Washington. His trip was delayed one hour as he flew in search of a marine transport plane that reportedly crashed near or around the southwest side of the mountain. A “mirror bright” flash reflected on his airplane, and he saw a fleet of nine peculiar looking objects flying north at supersonic speed at about 9,500 feet. Every few seconds two or three of the objects would change course or dip. The sun would then reflect brightly off these objects. Mr. Arnold described the objects as being flat or crescent appearing like saucers skipping on water. Newspaper men began calling them “flying saucers”. Below is a photo of Mr. Arnold and his original report and drawing of the UFO’s.
Hiking the mountain foothills and trails it made me think of what Arnold saw 69 years ago. There have been UFO sightings reported in recent years but the past two days and nights it was so foggy at the campground so I could not see the night skies and clouds.
On day three it was sunny as we left Mount Rainier and drove east. We saw a large bigfoot statue at a gas station in Morton reminding us that we were in “Squatch” country. Hundreds of bigfoot sightings have been reported over the years not only in this tri-county area but throughout the state.
We hiked the Wonderland Trail from Cougar Rock down to the National Park Inn & Longmire Museum and back. The 3.4-mile trek was fun going down but the 200-foot elevation change going back up was tiring. Rosie said she felt like she was in Alice of Wonderland as the trail through the wooded area had rocks, moss and so much greenery. An abnormal number of trees had holes where birds lived. We crossed one small, wooded bridge that looked like a troll bridge. I looked under the bridge and would have screamed like a Barbie if a face and eyes were looking back. The Paradise River flowed beside the trail the entire way. The sun came out and temperature rose to 58 degrees. We had lunch on the balcony of the Inn where I feasted on a Tahoma Indian Burger and Rosie had a beanburger. Also, at the Inn was a taxidermized marmot (last photo) which we heard whistling in the woods along the trail.
One of our favorite hikes on the trip. The 3.5-mile hike began with a 100-yard trek across slippery large and small boulders coming to the very fast moving Nisqually River. A large 30-foot-long bridge made from one large tree with a railing on the downstream side only crossed the raging river. I was proud of Rosie as she was scared and said this was the most challenging water crossing she had ever traversed. She said she felt like a female Indiana Jones. The tree was wet and very slippery. One mistake and you would fall and be carried downstream.
Once safely across, the trail was flat at first before ascending 500 feet. The forest trees ages varied from very young to very old, with some less than a century old and other more than 700 years old. In the lower section, lichen and moss-covered rocks and trees. The trail was slippery in places and the elevation gain wore me out as I was carrying a heavy knapsack. Parallel to the trail on the right was the Paradise River and 5,900-foot Eagle Peak. We finally reached beautiful 50-foot-tall Carter Falls and fifty yards further up cascading down was 34-foot Madcap Falls. On the way down Rosie talked to another hiker named Venee from India now working in Seattle.
We had planned to drive 3,400 feet up the mountain to an area called Paradise and visit the Jackson Visitor Center first before doing some high elevation climbing. We were 75% of the way there when temperature dropped to 43 degrees and the fog cut visibility to about 30 feet. Worried that the road might ice up as we drove higher, we turned around and drove back to Christine Falls. The trail descended 100 feet to view the 69-foot-high falls whose water feeds the stream beneath the historic stone arch of the road bridge. The stream feeds the Nisqually River a quarter mile away. We hiked the .5-mile trail that rounded through woods overlooking the river and back up to the parking area.
This 369 square mile national park’s centerpiece is 14,410-foot glacier capped Mount Rainier. We camped at a private campground 28 miles away in Eatonville. We entered the park’s southwest Nisqually Entrance and took photos at the famous overhead wood entrance sign. For most of the day we enjoyed several fantastic scenic hikes and saw many beautiful waterfalls. Ninety-seven percent of the park is wilderness, and we can see why. With the sun finally peeking out from the fog and clouds we ascended the mountain and crossed the Glacier Bridge to view Nisqually Valley and the Nisqually River. Climbing a few more turns we had a clear view of the 6,370 foot Plummer Peak and 6,562 foot Pinnacle Peak. We eventually made it up the mountain to 5,400 feet and toured the Jackson Visitor Center at Paradise, the highest point in the park reachable by car. In the center, Rosie had in her hand a free park poster that cost $46. She can tell you this funny story sometime. Once back outside, the temporary blue sky ended, and the temperature dropped to 43 degrees. It fogged up so we could not see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams nor the other volcanoes. Driving back down the mountain I spotted a marmot by the side of the road. We got out, listened it make its whistling noise, and took photos.
Returning to the small town of Eatonville, we ordered a veggie pizza to take back to our campground. At the city park, the people in the small town had turned out for the July 4th fireworks display. We stopped by briefly and I met the Police Chief and Fire Chief who gave me challenge coins that I eventually gave to my son who is a police sergeant. After we checked out of the campground two days later and drove east, the sky cleared, and we were able to get one photo of Mt. Rainier (the last picture).
South of Olympic National Park is the huge 628,000-acre Olympic National Forest. It also has the only temperate rainforest in the lower 48 states. It surrounds the Olympic National Park and the Olympic Mountains. We hiked along a stream near Hamma Hamma. To the east were the marshes along Dabob Bay and the Hood Canal.
We drove eight miles from the Lake Crescent section to the Elwha Valley Section of the park. Just past the parking lot the road was washed out due to flooding. The trailhead started across from the Elwha River and ascended about .6 mile up to the alluring Madison Falls. We sat and enjoyed the refreshing breeze and rushing sounds of the falls before heading back down. The Elwha is the Olympic Peninsula’s largest watershed and currently in the site of a large ecosystem restoration project. The mighty river is born of snowmelt and flows 45 miles into the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Driving back to on HWY 101 to Port Angeles we stopped and posed by giant bigfoot statues. Driving through the town of Port Angeles we stopped to view the Strait where across from this body of water to the north is Victoria, Canada and a little farther north is Vancouver, Canada. We picked up salmon and vegetables for dinner and headed back to the campground.
