We left our Walmart parking spot in Longview, Washington, Sunday morning after church, and headed down the road to our next destination. As we left town, we saw that the river harbor is a storage facility for piles of logs as far as we can see.
Even though we just got to Washington, the GPS is taking us back over the bridge to Oregon for most of the drive today. Crossing that bridge, we see a ship being loaded to take some of that wood far away.
After an hour's drive west in Oregon, we arrive in Astoria to reconnect to Highway 101. We're about to drive over the famous Astoria bridge.
This bridge stretches four miles over the grand Columbia River.
Again, we see that the state of Washington has spared no expense in signage to welcome us back!
Our new destination is Long Beach, Washington, and we pulled into town in the middle of the afternoon. We had made reservations at Sand Castle RV campground several weeks ago. Then the strangest series of events took place as we found that our campground didn't have record of our reservations. It took some detective work to figure out that Denisa had written down a different campground's phone number by mistake. So while she thought she was making reservations with Sand Castle, she was actually talking on the phone with a different campground. That's the first time that has happened since we went full-time.
After a warm afternoon, the cold winds were blowing on the beach by the time we finally got set up. This is a wide sandy beach. After we walked over the dunes to the beach, it's another quarter mile of flat sand before we got to the ocean. We share this wide strip of beach with cars, because in Washington this stretch of sand is recognized as an official road.
We also share the beach with the normal shore birds. But as we walk back through the sand dunes, we notice an unusual bird perched on a tall pole.
He must be used to beach-goers, because he lets us get quite close before taking off. We didn't have the good camera with us, so this is the best image we could get. But that was definitely a young bald eagle perched at the beach. We would find out later that the Long Beach peninsula has the highest concentration of bald eagles in the lower 48 states, and we would see many more during our stay.
The Long Beach Peninsula runs north-south for 28 miles along the Washington coast. The peninsula is about a mile and a half wide. So wherever we went on the peninsula, we were close to the Pacific on the west and Willapa Bay on the east. Water is an important part of the culture and livelihood of this peninsula. That is reflected in the town names we will drive through--Oysterville, Seaview, Ocean Park, Surfside, and Long Beach.
We will be staying in Long Beach for four days, and the arch on Main proclaims this 28-mile stretch is the longest beach in the world. Long Beach does have a long beach, but is it really the longest? When we did some research, we found that there are beaches longer in Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Texas and Virginia. But I guess a sign that proclaims that it is the 7th longest beach doesn't have the same ring to it?
We drove to the furthest point north on Long Beach peninsula, and found we need a Washington Discovery Pass to park at most state parks. We bought a pass since we plan to travel in this state for around a month. We did a hike that took us along the bay side of the peninsula.
We had intended to keep walking the width of the peninsula on a trail to get to the ocean side. But we had been warned about the soggy trails at this state park. When the signage at the beginning of the hike warns you "It's not really hiking (it's more like wading) from October to May" they are not kidding--especially during a very wet spring.
It even started sprinkling while we were hiking. Between the rain drops and the mosquitoes, we didn't linger long at the state park. We found out that this time of year brings the biggest mosquitoes, and we saw some big swarms in the marshy areas. So we drove to a different state park (and got to use our Discover Pass again) to take a cool-weather walk on the ocean beach with our jackets.
Much of the interior of this 28-mile peninsula is planted into cranberry bogs. Our campground owner recommended visiting the Cranberry Museum in town. Denisa knew she was going to like it here just from all the flowers planted outside.
There is a self-guided tour through the building that explains how the cranberry bogs are made, and planted, and cared for. We learned much about the cranberry way of life. We especially enjoyed learning about the many ways to harvest the ripe berries. Currently, 95% of the fields are harvested via the flooding method. After flooding the fields, a machine loosens the berries from the plants so they float to the top of the water to be corralled into containers. But earlier methods are exhibited in the museum. They range from the machine on the left that the farmer walks behind, to the cranberry vacuum behind Mark that was the latest rave in the 1940's. In the middle of the display are the handheld devices that coax the berries off the plants using wooden fingers mounted in a box.
The museum is adjacent to the Washington State University Research Farm, and visitors are encouraged to walk among the cranberry bogs to get a close-up view.
There are flags among the bogs, indicating test plots of different varieties or methods being researched. The plants are still in their red-tinged dormant stage. They will bloom and set berries in the next few months for the harvest in the fall.
On the way back to the car, Denisa couldn't help but take some pictures of the flowers lining the driveway. The pink azaleas made a bright background for the dainty purple flowers.
We have been blessed to follow the beautiful rhododendron and azalea bloom through our travels towards the north, but we had never seen this yellow wisteria-like tree blooming.
There is another strange attraction in Long Beach--Marsh's Free Museum. It's actually a touristy store, that masquerades as a museum with its strange collection of taxidermed animals and antique coin-operated machines. Besides the two-headed calf and the machine that will measure your love life by your hand strength, there is the store's most famous resident. Now that we are residents of Long Beach, we have to include a picture of Jake the Alligator Man from Marsh's Free Museum.
We are learning much and seeing much on Long Beach peninsula. We think we're going to like it here (as long as we don't have nightmares about Jake)!
After eight days in the Columbia River Gorge, we had to head on down the road. We are on a schedule right now, as we are meeting one of our sons in Seattle in a couple weeks. So we headed down the road and across the Columbia River into the state of Washington. We are finding that Washington doesn't spend much money on fancy signs to welcome visitors to their state.
This is a new state for our motor home travels, and one stop we want to make is to see Mount St. Helens. We have seen her from atop Dog Mountain, and the Larch Mountain viewpoint, but we wanted to see her up close. It's a ways off our intended path, so we decided to boondock at the closest Walmart in Longview, Washington. This is the first Walmart we have seen that welcomes overnight RVers in a while. We found none in California or Oregon along the path we have traveled in the last three months. We parked the motor home beside the rose-bush-planted median in the side parking lot at Walmart, thinking that this is better landscaping than we have seen at some RV parks. Then we drove the car towards Mount St. Helens National Memorial.
It was an hour's drive from Longview, but the mountain scenery kept us entertained. We pulled off at the first of the viewpoints along the highway to get the lay of the land. This is the North Fork Toutle River Valley. Even though we are about ten miles away from Mount St. Helens, we are still within the blast zone that changed this area forever on May 18, 1980 when the mountain exploded. The rubble from the explosion came down this river valley, and within ten minutes deposited debris that averaged 150 feet in height to this landscape. So this valley isn't nearly as deep as it was 37 years ago. This section of the park has been replanted with trees and grass, and it looks like it's worlds away from a volcanic eruption.
The forests of planted evergreens are thick and perfect. There are so many branches intertwined in this group of same-age trees that the picture looks blurry.
From the next viewpoint, we can finally see the snowy base of Mount St. Helens, with Spirit Lake visible at her foot. But those clouds are hiding the beautiful face of St. Helens that we have come to see.
We talked to local hikers who said that their favorite hike was the one that circled Coldwater Lake. We stopped in for a look at this beautifully clear lake that was formed when debris from the volcano dammed the river. It's a chilly afternoon, but there are kayakers enjoying the cold water in Coldwater Lake.
We didn't take the 15-mile hike today, but we did take the 1-mile boardwalk that took us out over the lake. We visited with a volunteer ranger, who spends his afternoons answering tourist questions on this lake just for fun.
It was after 2:00 in the afternoon by the time we got to the official viewpoint right in front of Mount St. Helens. We weren't in any hurry to get here today, as we were hoping the morning clouds would burn off this afternoon. But we obviously don't understand the perseverance of Washington clouds.
This section of the national monument was not replanted in any way. This is a giant scientific experiment to see how land will react to the devastation of a volcanic eruption. 37 years later, the valleys closest to the volcano are still barren.
There are still stumps standing where giant trees were blown away that day.
There are whole mountains covered with these downed trees that look like toothpicks strewn over the hills. While we think of volcanoes as flowing red hot lava, much of the damage came from the blast when the entire side of Mount St. Helens exploded outwards.
The scientists studying the mountain knew that this eruption was eminent. Where the pressure was building inside Mount St. Helens, it was pushing the side of the mountain out as much as 4-5 feet per day. Before it exploded, the front side extended some 450 feet out further than usual.
Since we had all afternoon, we checked out the movies in the visitor center. There are two different films about the volcanic explosion, shown on a giant screen in front of the red current.
At the end of the show, the red curtain rises and we suddenly had front row seats to the beautiful Mount St. Helens--with the top still covered in clouds.
We ate the picnic lunch we brought as we watched the mountain. At 5:15, the clouds lifted enough to show the front face of the mountain. This is the side that exploded and disintegrated.
We got comfortable on a bench at the top of the viewing area and watched as the skies start to clear. We saw more and more blue sky, and the shorter mountains around us were lit up by the sun that was sinking in the sky. This is a beautiful place, as well as a solemn one. Fifty-seven people died when the volcano erupted 37 years ago this week.
We watched until 6:30 p.m. The visitor center is now closed and the parking lot is almost empty. We had hoped for a clear sky to show Mount St. Helens in all her glory. But we had been warned that a mountain this big can affect the weather around it, and today she was holding onto the clouds.
So we took a final panorama picture with the barren valley, and Mount St. Helens in the back right corner. The skies are clearing over the valley, with those darn clouds still stacked up just over the mountain.
As we drive back through the park, the foothills are lit up. We didn't get to see the star of the park, but it still is a beautiful place to spend the day.
We drove back to our home in the Walmart parking lot and did our shopping there in appreciation for the free night's stay. Besides, it's a great time-saver to roll that cart full of purchases directly to the door of your home. We don't mind an occasional Walmart overnight stay, especially if it makes it easier for us to visit an interesting place like Mount St. Helens.
On our last day in the Columbia River Gorge, we wanted to stay close to home and give our legs a rest. We had heard about the view from Larch Mountain, where on a clear day you can see the snowy peaks of the 5 tallest mountains in Oregon and Washington. That view is available by driving just 14 miles up a steep mountain road. That sounds like a great plan! The only problem with the plan is that there is a gate over the road at the ten-mile point. The only way to the summit was to hike over 4 miles up the road, so that's what we did.
We met some hikers coming towards us, who told us that the snow covers the road ahead, so they turned around. But we hiked on, because a little snow doesn't stop us.
Now a lot of snow can be a challenge. About 3.5 miles into our hike the snow got deeper.
As we reached drifts a couple feet high, we trudged on. We had met a bicycler who was planning to take a mountain bike trail from the top of Larch Mountain. But he took the time to give some wanderers from Oklahoma some great advice for our future travels. We saw his prints in the snow, evidence that he was still ahead of us and still pushing his bike through these drifts. When we got to the parking lot, we could see that it was covered with drifts as tall as four feet. Even a mountain biker will turn around here.
But we knew there was a trail to a lookout point somewhere under all this snow. Sure enough! We found a little patch of the paved trail, so we knew we were heading through the forest in the right direction. We know from listening to the local weather that on our recent rainy days, there was still snow falling on the mountains at elevations over 3500 feet. But this snow has a healthy layer of pine cones and needles on top of it. We walked about a quarter mile more through these drifts into the forest.
Suddenly we saw steps that took us straight up to the view point. We had made it to Sherrard Point!
We wanted to come to the top of Larch Mountain because this is one of the best spots to see the summits of the surrounding five snow-covered peaks. This was the best weather day of our week here, but we still have clouds scattered in our blue sky.
We have found that it is hard to tell white clouds from snow covered peaks when you are standing at a viewpoint. It's even harder to tell the difference in a picture. But that didn't stop us from taking pictures anyway.
The closest of the peaks we are looking at is Mount Hood. At just 22 miles away, it is a majestic sight from here. There are several ski areas on Mount Hood, and there is so much snow they are open eleven months each year. Locals told us that they usually have enough snow to ski year round, but they close in late summer for a month for maintenance. We never did get a completely clear shot of Mount Hood. But at times we could see the bottom and peak at the same time, with clouds covering the mid-section.
The tallest mountain is Mt. Rainier at 14,410 feet. But because it is almost 100 miles away, we can't see it on this partly-cloudy day. The next tallest is Mt. Adams at 12,307 feet. Our best picture of Mount Adams still has a generous cloud cover over its peak.
We kept waiting patiently for the clouds to clear. Mark found a perch outside the fenced viewpoint that gave a fence-less view of the mountains. That picture also shows off his new Keen hiking boots, that he really likes so far.
His perch also included a recliner-shaped rock that was quite comfortable. We are here to see the tall peaks, but it's also nice to see such healthy forests of evergreens below us. We have hiked through many forests riddled by damage from pine beetles, and we aren't seeing any of that in Oregon.
To get that view without the chain-link fence, Mark did have to climb over the fence and out of the view-point on top of Larch Mountain.
Denisa found that the cement floor can be soft enough for a nap. The weather was perfect and it was very quiet on the top of Larch Mountain.
We are planning a trip to Mount St. Helens, and that was another peak we could see this day. Actually, Mount St. Helens is just 8,363 feet high since it blew its perfectly conical top 37 years ago this month. But that jagged top was hiding in the clouds today.
The least known to us was Mount Jefferson, standing over 10,000 feet and about 60 miles south of here. It was the only mountain that we got a clear shot of while we waited on the top of Larch Mountain. On a completely clear day, this would be a spectacular view. Even on a partly-cloudy day we knew we had wandered into another of God's wonders.
With the trails covered in snow, only the heartiest of hikers will make it to this viewpoint. We visited with two of those hearty local hikers at length while they ate their packed lunch. They know these mountains and trails well. They suggested that instead of hiking back down the road, there is a trail that would take us back through the woods.
It was a great idea, and we enjoyed new scenery as we made this unexpected outing into a loop hike. We have to say that this was a muddier option than the asphalt road.
Our fellow hikers told us about a turn we need to watch for on the forest trail, and warned us there would be no signage to help us find it. Since they left ahead of us, they traced an arrow in the mud and also formed an arrow out of sticks to make sure we saw the turn. We have found hikers are great people!
After our tough hike and bike ride yesterday, this was supposed to be a resting day. We did take it a little easier, but we tallied up almost ten miles on this easy day. We had a picnic lunch at the viewpoint, but we decided we didn't want to cook anything else this evening. Besides, we really like the pulled pork sandwiches at the little grocery store right across the road from our campground. They absolutely stuff a large bun with smoked meat, then top it off with a generous mound of cole slaw. We have never repeated meals while we stayed in one place. But this sandwich is so good we ate this three different times during our eight day stay.
We did something else unique at Crown Pointe RV. We moved to three different camp sites during our stay at one campground. We wouldn't normally go to such lengths, but we really wanted to spend a good long time in the Columbia River Gorge. The campground manager here greets her visitors warmly. She has gifts for her guests--including homemade strawberry jam and a souvenir flashlight. We felt welcomed here! It was a good last day on the gorge, but we're heading across the border to a new state tomorrow.
