Road to Rainier
I had the pleasure of taking my son, Parker, to Mt. Rainier National Park on Sunday…well, at least to the gate. Wait…let me tell the whole story from the beginning.
Kelly had to work all day Sunday since the Senate wasn’t in session that day, so I got to stay home with Parker. Though she got to stay home with him all day Friday and Saturday while I was at work – and took him to a number of parks and playgrounds – OUR day together was greeted with cloudy skies and wet pavement. No playgrounds for us.
Rather than sit in the house playing trucks all day, I decided we needed to have an adventure!
After kissing mama goodbye and wishing her a good day at work, Parker and I loaded up the Element, had Kala hop into the front seat and headed east. We took the Yelm Highway through the Nisqually Indian Reservation and continued on through Yelm, McKenna, skirted Eatonville, and on through La Grande.
As we descended into the Ohop Valley, I found some pictures I wanted to take but couldn’t find a spot to pull over safely. I decided to snap them on my way back. We did, however, find a good place to pull over for a scenic view of the La Grande Dam.
Something to note: as we approached Elbe, there was a sign indicating that we should tune to AM 1610 for Mt. Rainier National Park information. I must say, the detail of the info was quite valuable, not to mention the script was well written (can’t help it, I’m a writer). Some of the more informative pieces were where the last public restroom is in Ashford (the visitor center), where you can fill up for gas (there are no fuel stations in the park) and where the last reliable cell phone coverage is (the Ashford Post Office parking lot…see the picture).
After passing Alder Lake and Elbe, and snapping a few photos, we continued on to Ashford, where we stopped to let the dog out, visit the visitor’s center and ask a few questions about climbing the mountain. My dad and I are considering making a run at the Rainier summit next year. I grabbed a few brochures from some of the more reputable guide services, looked around the shop at all the gear – crampons, tents, ice picks, jackets, etc. – and Parker and I went out the back door.
Outside were two rock climbing walls, which I knew Parker would enjoy, plus they were surrounded by pea gravel…a toddler’s best friend. Since we had been in the car for over an hour, I let Parker run around in the grass and pea gravel to stretch his legs. We took a picture by the Mt. Rainier Basecamp sign in Ashford just before it started to rain again, so we packed it all back into the Element and headed up the last five miles of road to the national park entrance.
As we neared the gate marking the entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park, something I have driven under at least a hundred times since I was a child, I pulled over to snap some pictures. Then we made our way under the threshold and into the park – only to be stopped a few hundred yards in by a ranger checkpoint. Apparently it costs $15 just to enter the park for the day, and since we were running short on time anyway (Kelly was getting off work in a few hours time), I decided to turn around and head home. We had reached our goal nonetheless, so I smiled and waved to the friendly ranger after she directed me to the turnaround point, and we began the trek home.
We took the same route back as we did coming up (save for a quick restroom break and diaper change in Ashford), and stopped only a few times to take some pictures I had made mental notes about on the way up. We hit the Yelm Highway and after calling Kelly to let her know where we were, we made a quick detour into the Amtrak station by our house. Having seen it from the highway dozens of times but never venturing down the road, we decided to take a look. Turns out, it’s a park and ride as well, and also houses a Thurston County Sheriff substation. I was hoping a train would go by so Parker could see one up close, but there was no such luck.
We left the station and made the last mile and a half to the house, and as I started unpacking the car, mommy pulled into the driveway. Parker was excited to tell her – in his own language – all the things we had done that day, and I was just excited to be home with my family. During the Legislative session, you have to take advantage of moments like this, and I didn’t intend to let this day slip by without grabbing hold with both hands.
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Did you notice that they misspelled the name of the town “Elbe” should really be (what else?) “Ebel”!