Views Obscured by Clouds

Monday, June 20th – Mount Hood National Forest to Portland, Oregon to Mount Ranier to Millersylvania State Park, Washington - Day 129 

The morning featured low lying clouds and a bit of rain that obstructed our view of Mt. Hood. We couldn’t see anything except the base of the nearby hills and a lot of forest. The drive was scenic, but we missed out on enjoying Mount Hood. We cruised downwards into Portland to visit the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. 

Lucky for us, the gardens were free on Mondays. We walked through the grounds that were originally constructed because the golf course next door created a dam. The resulting pond provided the water for the magnificent gardens. We ate a lunch of leftover charcuterie from Father’s Day on a bench before strolling ground. 

With a quick drive through Portland, we jumped onto the 5 north on our way to the volcanic mountain range in Washington. All these weeks of rushing from place to place delayed the point where we had to miss a national park we wanted to see. We originally intended to spend a week in Oregon but this was reduced to two days; we did see Oregon’s only national park though. In Washington we wanted to see Mount Ranier National Park, Mount St.Helens National Volcanic Monument and Olympic National Park but we didn’t have time. Gen was in favour of cutting Mount St. Helens, I wanted to cut Mount Ranier. We debated and Mount Ranier won. 

We drove the 2 hours to a green, hilly road that led us into Mount Ranier National Park. As soon as we entered into the park, we ditched the trailer in a parking lot. No need to drive a trailer up a mountain. We needed to get junior ranger booklets so as usual, a quick stop at the visitor centre. 

With junior ranger books in hand, we walked the Trail of the Shadows, a beautiful 1.1 km loop around a meadow through a beautiful green forest with moss and ferns covering the ground. 

To be continued...