May 23, 2018

You might be wondering where we were at, but then again maybe not.  We are still here, a little bit older and a lot slower, hence the shortage of blogs. :)
But I have lots of pictures and the space of FB is limited so wall la, here I am.  I hope you enjoy what I have to share.  I do enjoy going places and taking pictures.  So, for the moment:

It is May 21, 2018 and Marty calls to ask what I am doing, do I want to go somewhere?  Silly girl!!
Sure, says I, where do you want to go?  Oh, maybe Yakima way, says she.

7:45 am, a cup of tea stop, and down the road we go.  Maybe we can go to Bickelton, or maybe Mt. Rainier.  Flip a coin.  Mt. Rainier it is!!!  And a really good choice, as it turns out.  Beautiful day, sun shine, grand company and a lilt in our step.  Hey, hey, we are going away!!!!!

A bit to eat at McD's in Yakima and off to White Pass. We made a couple of stops on the way up the pass.  Who can go over the pass without stopping to see the big waterfall?  And Rimrock lake was brimming with water.  (Last time we were here was the year of the shortage of snow and so no run off.  Rimrock lake was pretty much dry.  It was so good to see if full.)

 Notice the vapor lines in the sky reflecting in the water.  How cool is that?

See the little white line coming down the Mt.

That is a water fall that is coming from the top.

 You can see Rimrock Lake in the middle  of the picture.

 Not sure what she is but ain't she pretty.

We turned on Highway 123 to go to Paradise Lodge but the kiosk was unmanned, you just drop $25 in the box and display the envelope in your window.  We had followed two motor homes in and while we were sitting there discussing the situation the motor homes had turned around and were coming out.  So we saved our self $25 and turned around also.  I was thinking we could try a back road through Packwood and see if we could get closer to Rainier.

Coming in to Packwood we stopped at Cruiser's for lunch.  I talked to a couple of guys about the direction we should be going and then we headed back down the road and turned on Skate Creek Rd.  What a lovely road that was, and WINDING.  I doubt if there was 100 feet of straight road.  But it was lush and green with water falls and creeks.  The tree trunks were covered with moss.  The creeks and water falls were gorgeous.

 In case you missed it, check out the shadows on the round rock in the stream.  Ain't nature grand!!

 The water was so clear.

 The bridge wall was even covered with moss.

Farther on down the road we saw the stream to the right.  The stream bed was large and wide but it was mostly rocks and debris with a little steam running down the middle.  I can't tell you how much debris covered the sides of the stream bed.  You can tell that it ran wide and wild at one time.  It must have been a site to behold, scary and dangerous.

 Miss Marty in her element.

 Just in case.

 This was on a corner, getting closer to the Mt.  

 There is a water fall off to the right.  Check out the tree roots.

 

 Finally getting closer to Paradise Lodge.

This is the stream bed from afar.  All of the grey you see is rocks, good sized ones.  Can you imagine water rushing down and filling that valley?

 That is a rainbow in between the tree trunks.

 This is on the mountain up near the top.  You can see where the snow balls have come rolling down the side.

Here are a couple of little guys that were hanging around the visitor center.

The clouds were beginning to roll in on the mountain.

So, we headed on back down the mountain to see what we could see.  (Do you remember the nursery rhyme The Bear Went Over the Mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.  And all that he could see was the other side of the mountain.)  Well, we were a bit luckier.

We stopped to take a picture of this magnificent view.  While we were standing there we were hearing a noise.  I thought frog at first.  It was a deep guttural sound, gump, gump, that kind of reverberated on a tight drum.  As we were looking this beautiful little guy stepped out of the trees and out into the open.  Can you see him?

Then we spotted her.  Needless to say, she was not very impressed.  She sat there the whole time he was gumping and strutting around.

Then he stepped into the open.  Ain't nature grand.

Poor baby, not getting anywhere with his display he showed us his back side and walked off into the woods.

A little farther down the road we saw cars slowing down.  Here this sweet thing is just eating away, not paying any attention to the cars.

You know, we have probably 1000 pictures of deer.  The all look just about alike, all doing the same thing. Now, you might ask, why do you need more?  Look at that grand little creature, who could resist.

Coming farther down we crossed a bridge that was over this stream bed.  Remember I told you they were mostly large rocks and very little stream?  You can just barely see the stream in this one.  Can you imagine the force and destruction if it were in full flow coming down the mountain side?  Beautiful!

Coming into Packwood on the lawn of the motel we saw this lovely group of elk hanging out and enjoying the grass.

I have a picture of a push me/ pull you horse.  Now I have a 2 headed elk.  Ain't nature grand?

So we headed for home.  A lovely day, beautiful scenery, animals, birds, waterfalls, streams and snow in May.  What more could you ask for?

Well, check out this dude!!!

I have never seen antlers in this stage. 

WOW!!  How  cool is that?

On April 22, 2015 Marty and I were traveling this same road.  We passed Forest Road 45 and I said, I want to do that some day.  What? she says.  Go down back roads to see what is there, says I.  Oh, says she.  She jammed on the brakes, flipped a youey, and we have been traveling down dirt roads every since.

Having said that, we decided to so down this very same road and check it out again.  We missed it going up so we have to jam on the brakes and flip around again, but we found it, Forrest Rd 45.

Look what was waiting for us in the middle of the road.

Farther on down is Soda Springs campground with this lovely stream.

From the top of the bridge looking down.

And so we turn around and find our way back down the mountain toward home.

The sun is setting on a wonderful day.

Dinner in Yakima at 9:30 p.m.

I pull into my driveway at 12:15 a.m.

We have put on 439 glorious miles.

I hope you enjoyed looking at the adventures of Marty Parthree and Arleen Miller @

Travel Tales of the Grannies

and didn't find it to boring.

Please stop by again.

Until next time

Love to All