Mount Rainier National Park, Mount St Helens and Nearby Highways

Lowlights

There are no highlights for this trip, only lowlights :(. Part of the problem was brought on by myself for taking risk - I decided to still go to Mount Rainier during the government shutdown of 2013 in hope of being able to access some trails along park roads that are also connecting highways. Indeed, I was able to go through the park entrance with no problem. However, all roads leading to park facilities and trails were closed off. At the end, I just managed shots of the entrance and a distant view of Mount Rainier itself.

Another bad decision was deciding to take a more direct route to Columbia River Gorge with an attempt to visit Mount St Helens along the way. This took me on hours of mountain driving through winding remote roads. It would not have been so bad had I made prior lodging arrangement. As it was, I did not reach the gorge area until after dark and had to hustle to find a place to stay.

Forest Road 25 was reasonably maintained, but not well traveled. Or perhaps this was a byproduct of the shutdown? In any event, I did not see any car approaching me from behind, and only saw occasional vehicles coming from the other direction. There were several campgrounds along the way, but I was not in the mood to check them out, assuming these campgrounds would be closed like the rest. There were waterfalls that could be seen from the road. However, they seem neglected and in poor condition due to slides.

The road to Windy Ridge of Mount St Helens National Monument was open to my surprise. Fortunately, the road to the Windy Ridge Visitor Center was not long. While the Visitor Center was closed, the view of Mount St Helens was not. I managed a few snapshots to satisfy myself before heading back down.

Noticing a sign to a waterfall in the vicinity of the turn off to Mount St Helens, I made a short detour to check it out. While the trail was short, it seems seldom visited. Being all by myself late in the day in the dark old growth forest, I had to pay attention to look around to make sure no one or animal get too close without my knowledge.

A few more photos from Flickr