Seattle Rain and Rainier

The road into Seattle, I 90, felt less like an interstate and more like a precarious drive through a mountainous rain forest. Actually, it felt a lot like what I expected the Grand Tetons to feel like. I was dwarfed by the immense Cascade Mountains, one after the other, for many miles as I wove through mountain passes. This stretch is perhaps the most entertaining and white knuckled drive on any of the major cross country interstates, made all the more difficult by the weather changing from drizzle to rain to thunderstorm to snow to sleet and back again, ending in a steady drizzle that would linger for the next 3 days. Hey, it's Seattle.

Mr. and Mrs. Battlestar swore that this much rain was uncharacteristic, but why would there be so many jokes about Seattle's rainy weather? I arrived at the BS's early enough on Friday to enjoy dinner. We ordered superb Thai food, and it wouldn't be until Sunday morning before I had a full meal of anything but Asian cuisines. It was delicious and I probably haven't had better since I was last in San Francisco a year ago. Thanks to the Battlestars' for being superb hosts and I wish them the best on their upcoming adventures...before weeks end, they will be in Australia, and BS himself will have turned 41 (happy b-day!).

This morning, I exited rainy Seattle with weather forecasts at all possible destinations calling for constant precipitation again in the drizzle to snow range. The best places to explore were also at the highest elevations, so snow and closed roads were on the agenda, and the forecasters were remarkably accurate. After combating Seattle's rush hour traffic that was as hectic as Philadelphia's is, I wound my way to the only entrance still open at Mount Rainier National Park.

Mt. Rainier was the fifth National Park ever established and encompasses all of the 14,410 foot eponymous peak. Unlike the Tetons, the base of this behemoth starts near sea level, and pyramids upward. I wish I could describe its majesty, but I could see no further up the slope than perhaps 100 feet. Fog and rain and eventually snow obscured the heights. Yet its' presence was easy to perceive by the switchback turns, tumbling waterfalls and old growth forests. A couple of short hikes into the forests yielded a shadowy spongy existence that declared that this place was unique and special.

If I could have ventured further into the park, I am sure each change in elevation would have provided more unique adventures, but the road to scenic Paradise was closed and I had to turn back. And just an hour later I ran into similar road blocks as I tried to scale Mount St. Helens. This time the much shorter peak (8,365 feet) halted me just 8 miles from the drives summit as the underside of Pre was sheering off the grooves of snow accumulated between the tire tracks. The road wasn't closed and I was tempted to push onward, but a sportsman applying his tire chains informed me, "There's 3 feet of snow up there, you're not going to make it, you gotta turn back or they'll be pulling you off the side of the volcano."

Still, each of the aborted mountain climbs were well worth the journeys and having to come back the same road just provided double the scenic driving. Following another fearsome drive at high altitudes as I passed south of Mount Hood, I at last arrived at Madras, OR where I am calming my nerves. I hope the forecasters remain accurate as I am expecting 50 degrees and partly sunny for a repeat visit to one of my favorite National Parks.