Our Trip thru Washington Continues

 The day after the reunion we were still in the state of Washington-  oh my.  However, we were enjoying our drive through Washington and as yet were in no rush to get home.  Saturday morning we drove through a rural area of the state with many signs directing us to produce stands to purchase cherries, peaches and blueberries it was tempting, but our little cooler was already full.  Our lunch stop was in Leavenworth, we had to make that stop.

 

We had visited this town while traveling in our home on wheels, maybe 10 years ago.  The town is about all things German.  It was packed with throngs of people when we arrived.  Not a good place to be during a pandemic.  We did find a restaurant which did not have a long line running down the street, and had a delightful lunch of beer and brats.

I would have loved wandering through the shops offering German goods of cuckoo clocks and wood carvings, but it was necessary to be on our way.  We drove from Leavenworth again by fields of crops and cattle- one kind farmer labeled his fields so we did not have to wonder what was growing in them.  So in his fields we learned were growing: alfalfa, sweet corn, wheat, potatoes and timothy hay.  They were just small signs which were readable from the highway.

 We drove through the town of Wenatchee, where there is a confluence of the river of the same name And the Columbia River.

It was late afternoon when we started thinking that we should find a motel for the night.  We started checking on line and making calls.  No luck, we should have started thinking about that earlier.  We drove into Coeur d' Alene and randomly stopped at a Super 8.  They had a room!  However, it was for $200.00, and the kicker was that there were no elevators in the building.  It was a place to stop and the odds of finding any room were slim to none.  We took the room and schlepped our luggage up several flights.  Well, the desk clerk offered to help us, but she did not look any physically better than us, we turned her down.  Coeur d' Alene is a popular tourist town, we were just unlucky to have ended up there when we were ready to stop for the night.

Coeur d'Alene Lake

Returning Home- a Long Day Traveling through Washington

 Our family reunion ended on Friday.  John had on his bucket list a drive through the Cascades.  We headed north toward Seattle, and lost precious time driving around that city.   Traffic was pretty much at a standstill; what would have taken us about 3 hours took 5 hours to reach the Cascade scenic highway 70.  I must say what kept my sanity was reading the bumper stickers on the car in front of me:  "I brake for little libraries" ( I have done that)," childhood is not a race but a journey", "a life outdoors is a life well spent", "make art not trash", "relish today and ketchup tomorrow".  Hmm, I would have liked to have met the driver of that car- my kind of person!

What we saw of the North Cascades Park was beautiful...but forest fires were in the area and after about 70 miles in there were warning signs that the road was blocked off .

John kept driving, determined to see as much as he could until the very point where we had to turn around.  When we did turn back it seemed that we saw a bit more interesting scenery than we we came in. For anyone not familiar with the Cascades, it is an alpine- like wilderness area.  It has ancient forests, glaciers and pristine mountain lakes.  Tourists coming to this area are usually hikers and backpackers.  It would have been nice to have completed our drive through the park, but that was not possible.  We did however, see a small part of it, and I counted about four cascading waterfalls down the mountain sides on our way out.  We made one stop, to view Gorge Creek, before heading out and finding another highway to continue our trek through Washington.

So our aborted trip through the Cascades park took us about 200 miles out of our way.  It was late before we started looking for a motel.  We were driving through some forested area with little roadside amenities offered when I saw a sign which said "Eatery".  As we stopped in front of it we noticed that it was closing for the day (we had not stopped for supper).  Then I noticed a sign that indicated cabins were available.  We signed up for a cabin costing higher than what we usually pay, but it was a bed!  We then inquired about supper and were told that there was a bar below the motel office where we could get food.  The bar keeper informed us that he only cooked what he could put in his fry basket.  We had chicken nuggets and beer for our repast at 9:30 PM.  What a day, but still all good.  The cabin was comfortable, and the motel/bar/drive in complex  had a cafe where we had a good breakfast.  We also discovered that the business had a winery on the grounds- so if you are ever on the North Cascades Highway, look for the Glacial Peak Resort and Winery.  

Our sweet cabin in the woods

Mount Rainer

 Ont Thursday of our reunion week the majority of our family chose to go to a water park for the day.  John and I, as well as my brother Wayne, opted for a visit to Mount Rainer.  Our son Daniel and his wife had already been there, and had enjoyed a few of its trails.  Their excitement about what they had seen whetted our appetite to also visit the mountain.  Unfortunately the trip there involved a several hours drive, and our day was cut a bit short by a flat tire which needed repairing.   The other sad news was that the mountain was a bit covered by a cloud when we arrived there.

At the visitor's center we looked over the variety of trails which we could take around or up the mountain, all of which were called "Paradise Trails".   Given our time constraint, we chose to take the Myrtle Falls trail.  That was a wonderful choice!  It included wildflower meadows, and many of the large patches of flowers had small signs identifying them.

 Bear grass lily

Avalanche Lily

Wayne walked as far as Myrtle Falls with us, and as the path was getting steeper, chose to sit and rest while John and I continued on.  Notice that we had jackets on in the picture below.  How that sounds wonderful during the hot days we are now experiencing in St.Louis!

Myrtle Falls

Along our trail we also passed by large fields of white and pink heather.

On the trail information at the visitor's center we were informed that we would "have close encounters with glaciers and snowfields and be able to enter the world of the upper mountain".  We did not climb up that far, but still enjoyed some beautiful vistas of snow patches on the mountain.

Despite our time constraints, we did not regret that trip to Mount Rainer at all!
 

Mount St.Helens

 On May 18, 1980 this mountain exploded in a blast that was over 500-times greater than the bomb that dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during World War 11.  Before that date Mount St.Helens in southwestern Washington was considered to be one of the most beautiful mountains in the world.  It was judged to be a young and active volcano with a nearly perfect cone. That information I obtained from a very beautiful book distributed by Impact printing, the title of which is Volcano Mount St. Helens.  Also another interesting piece of information is that before the eruption the mountain stood at 9,677 feet and currently its height is 8,365 feet. There were rumblings coming from the mountain prior to its eruption, which may explain why a vulcanologist, David Johnston, was standing on the north ridge in front of of the mountain before it blew. He was one  of the 57 people killed in that initial blast from the mountain.

This is how the mountain looks today.  Our family group stood for awhile at the Johnston Ridge Observatory (named for the vulcanologist who died at this ridge).  It was impressive looking at the valley below, as well as the lakes in the distance- trying to imagine how it all looked before the mountain blew.  John and I have visited this area several times since 1980.  The first time (several months after the initial blast) I remember seeing a burned out car still sitting by the side of the road, as well as large swaths of burned forests with only a few tree trunks still standing.  Within three minutes the landslide from the blast scorched 230 square miles of forest, toppling and removing many trees.  Parts of Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana were covered with layers of ash.  Day turned into night in the affected areas.

The stumps pictured above are all that is left of many of the 150-foot- tall trees, some of which were quite ancient.

The burned trees are still lying around,  but the scene of desolation now has the promise of new life with the forest growing back.

One of the first wildflowers to appear after a fire is the fireweed- that red flower pictured above.

Standing on the north ridge we were able to view the Toutle River Valley.  On that fateful day hundreds of feet of rock and debris filled its north fork, burying 14 miles of the river and its tributaries.  Rain, snow melt, and a mud flow from an eruption in 1982 carved new channels in the valley.  Part of the initial landslide surged into Spirit Lake, raising it about 200 feet.  Coldwater, Spirit, Silver, and Castle lakes were all changed or formed that day in 1980 from the eruption of the mountain.

                                          

There were a selection of trails we could have taken from the observatory, John and I chose the lake path.  Others of our group took a more challenging one- the hummock trail.  Hummocks are intact pieces of the mountain which were carried off in the landslide and still litter the valley floor today.  Along our lake path I noticed an interpretive sign which said that  "these lakes show that life quickly responds to natural changes on the earth's surface".  Mount Saint Helens was changed a lot in 1980, but natural beauty still can be found in the hillsides, lakes and valley surrounding it.

Lohrmann Reunion

 Our reunion this year took place at Silver Cove resort, which is located about 134 miles south of Seattle, Washington.  To be more precise, it is near Silver Lake and the town of Castle Rock.  Our family had plans to meet last year (we meet every three years) but the pandemic toppled those plans.  Our last reunion was in Colorado in 2017, and we had a wonderful turnout for that of about 80 plus family members.  Keep in mind that I have 9 siblings, and that can be rapidly multiplied when marriages happen and babies enter the bigger picture!

My husband John (pictured above in the foreground) has adapted well into family over the years, and that is remarkable given he has only one sibling and four nieces!  The picture above gives you an idea of the cabins which most of us stayed in during the reunion.  

We always come up with some tee shirt to commemorate our reunions, they are a great reference as to what state we were in and when for each reunion.  By the way, our reunions over the years have taken place in Maine, Missouri, Minnesota, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon and Washington twice.  This year our niece Cheryl and daughter-in-law Amanda worked on tie-dye shirts for everyone to wear.  Blue hands marked those working on that project!

Devotion time is important to our family group.  We even tote around a couple boxes of song books to aid us in that worship time.  As children family devotions were held frequently after supper, we have kept that tradition alive during our reunions over the years. Fellowship time usually follows after that time into the wee hours of the morning (for only a smaller number of us).  And generally there is a blazing fire and s'mores to add to the fun.

Some of our group took a hike around Silver Lake, the largest natural lake within a radius of hundreds of miles (according to an interpretive sign).  It also supports at least 70 species of plants which thrive in the shallow waters.

The nearest town to our resort is the town of Castle Rock.  It was named for a large rock towering above the Cowlitz River at 900 feet.  It was a landmark in the early 1800s for the Cowlitz Indians as well as for the Hudson Bay fur traders.  John and I spent some time walking around the town while one of our flat tire was getting repaired.  I was amazed at all the pots of flowering plants which literally covered the town, in front of many homes as well as businesses.  As I was snapping pictures a man came up to me and introduced himself as a member of the Chamber of Commerce.  He was wondering about what I liked about the town.  After I informed him that I was thrilled with the presence of all the flowers in the town he replied that they were a "Bloom" city.  The town received that honor because of its many flowers, benches and murals.  The town of Castle Rock calls itself the "Gateway to St.Helens".  Our family group planned that as an outing which we could do as a group together on the second day of our reunion week.  More on that in my next posting.

Rose Spire wildflower

Our Final Day on the Road, for awhile

 Lewiston, Idaho was our stop for the night on Saturday.  Sunday morning found us looking for breakfast in Clarkston, Washington.  It took me some time to muse on that- like, oh, Lewis and Clark!  

It was somewhere in modern day Washington that Lewis and Clark made it to the Pacific Ocean.  I have not pursued finding out the details, whether they traversed via the Snake or Columbia rivers.  That statue I happened to see as we were leaving Clarkston.  Anyway, back to our breakfast stop in Clarkston.   We were informed that the best place to eat was at Hazel's Good Eats, and that we could easily find it because there was a chicken figure outside of the place.  We looked for a big chicken to greet us as we headed down the road.  No big chicken or rooster seen.  I pulled out my trusty intelligent phone for directions.  Surprise,surprise- I was looking for the wrong chicken!

Now how could we have seen that chicken just driving by,  much less the larger rooster pecking on the ground?  We had a good breakfast there, however.  Another humorous note regarding this restaurant- the restrooms were labeled "eggs" and "sausages".

The above picture is so characteristic of what we viewed driving through the Palouse Valley of Washington; gentle rolling hills covered with wheat.  Wheat is one of the most lucrative crops of southeast Washington.

The most wonderful part of our journey that Sunday was driving through the canyon of the Columbia River Gorge.   This 80 miles of the Columbia River has the greatest concentration of waterfalls in North America.  We have driven through of  here at least once previously and we had seen Multnomah Falls, one the more notable waterfalls in the canyon.  So, given our time constraint, it was necessary not to follow the signs directing us to any waterfalls.  

Above is again one of the sights of the Columbia River.  At this eastern edge of the gorge it is a drier area, as noted by the sagebrush.  Generally most of the river's edge has beautiful lush green foliage. We followed the river into Portland Oregon, and from there we drove south to Silver Lake. We made it to the reunion in time to eat a late supper with our extended family.  A plan was made for our group to visit Mt. St. Helens in two days.  A day of rest was first needed most certainly!

Traveling West through Idaho

 We had just started in Idaho on Saturday and realized we still had to pass through it, as well as Oregon and Washington to make the family reunion in Washington by Sunday evening.  It was quite fortunate that we had made motel reservations for each night, so the miles that were necessary to cover each day had been all figured into our goal of making it to the reunion in time.  

 

We continued to view mountains as we drove on the Sawtooth Mountain Scenic Byway.  And driving through the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway we saw a sobering reminder of the devastation of forest fires.  It seemed to us that what we were viewing was a fairly recent forest fire, although probably not of this year.  We did experience smoky skies and air later in parts of Oregon, Washington and Montana.

 

                                       

At the border between Idaho and Oregon we saw signs for Hell's Canyon.  We were tempted to check it out.  Seemed a very unwise thing to do, given it was late Saturday afternoon.  So we took the Seven Devils access drive, which was a gravel road.  Another mistake there, but we had read that the canyon had the deepest river gorge in the United States and was 2,000 higher than the Grand Canyon.  Also that the Snake River running through it was world famous for its white water rafting.  Seemed important enough to check out.  We reached a mile 7 marker, stopped and pondered what to do next.  A group of people ( I would say they were about our age, maybe a bit younger) came toward us on several all terrain vehicles.  They came from a campground which was atop the canyon.  We asked how much further we had to go to reach the top of the canyon.  They said we still had about 12 miles to go yet, and encourage us to keep going.  There was no way that we wanted to go any further because of the rocky road!  We decided instead to head back down and stop where we could to view the canyon. 

                                          

There were no scenic overlooks on this road through the canyon, we just pulled off the road wherever there were breaks in the trees lining the road.  We were most certainly on the wrong road to access the canyon!  Coming off Seven Devils road we came to Half Way to Heaven Lane and I chuckled, are we talking heaven or hell here?  There is also a Hell's Gate State Park in the area.   Any which way anyone would choose to view it, any natural scenic area is certainly heaven to me.  Researching the canyon later I learned that the earliest white settlers called it Hell's Canyon because they unsuccessfully tried to tame the Snake river which flowed through it..

                                         

   Shortly after leaving Hell's Canyon I saw a interesting roadside sign:  "Salmon lives matter, give a dam".   There were also signs directing us to Riggins, Idaho- "White water capital of the world".  However, we headed to Lewiston Oregon, our stop for the night. We arrived there rather late, but it had been another interesting day on our way west.

 

Westward Ho

 John and I just completed a 5,000 mile road trip across the western half of our country.  This was planned for last year, but the pandemic took care of that.  We have been vaccinated, but still Covid-19 remained a bit of concern for us, especially with the new variant of the virus picking up speed.  I was a bit relived, when  after returning home, we passed the twelfth day and showed no symptoms.  We are not so concerned for ourselves because we are well covered by the vaccine, but we want to be careful for our grandchildren.  Anyway, we left home on July 12 with our first goal to attend John's 50th college reunion at Concordia University located in Seward Nebraska.  We spent a couple of days there attending a few planned activities which culminated with a banquet the last evening.  I can only say one thing on that experience, and that is that the school has changed a lot over those 50 years, and has been quite successful in that growth!

Our next goal, after leaving Seward was the Lohrmann family reunion in the state of Washington.  We had about 4 days to travel through 5 states.  Our first scenic stop was in the Pine Bluffs area of Wyoming.  An interpretive sign explained that the beautiful ridges and draws of the bluffs had been created over millions of years of weathering.  Their capstone of sandstone and clay stone slowly collapsed over the years because of the soft clay underneath.

The picture above gives you an idea of what we saw looking down from one of the rock precipices of the bluff area.  The interpretive sign indicated that the forests here were of mountain mahogany, as well as ponderosa and limber pine.

After that stop we encountered a bit of a rain storm which included bits of hail.  Hearing the hail on the car roof made us fearful of what kind of damage it was causing- but the hail only made very small indentations on the car roof fortunately.  It was fascinating watching the storm clouds roll in and to see rain off in the distance as it slowly moved toward us.  The sun peeped in and out of the clouds and created splotches of light over the rolling hills.  Soon we were out of the rain and in the Sawtooth National forests. Here we had our first awesome views of the mountains for which western parts of our United States are noted for.

We drove through the town of Ketchum Idaho, known for its ski slopes.

Roadside signs reminded us that "Idaho is too beautiful to litter" and also that an extreme drought was present in the state and to conserve water.  We now had two days to make it to the reunion on time, more on our travels in the next posting.