Our spot in Monroe, Washington at the Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV & Camping Resort was pretty nice. This park is divided by the Ben Howard Road and one side is on the Skykomish River. The other side has all the amenities, and it is pretty nice place. The river side is not very developed, but there is plenty of room.
One morning we were there we heard quite a ruckus on the river. We have an app that identifies birds and I turned that on and it turns out it was a bald eagle. So I walk over to the river to see what it was and there were two eagles on the sand bar and it sounded like the one causing a scene was in the woods. I have never actually heard an eagle make any sound, much less pitching a fit, but it was pretty awesome. I caught the two on the water with my camera. They stayed there for a long while. At least until the fight in the woods was over, and then juvenile and other adult flew off.
Our next stop was Cle Elum, Washington. On the way we saw an eagle running from a crow type bird, maybe a grackle, along the interstate. It was pretty funny to see this huge majestic beast of a bird being chased by a foot tall grackle. They were down at our level, so the eagle must have been close to the nest of the grackle. It was fantastic. There was no time to reach for the camera, dang it!
We set up at our campsite at the Whispering Pines RV Park in Cle Elum. It is a pretty cool park. Not many sites have sewer, but we got it! Washington State has RV dumps at all their rest stops, so you can always dump down the road a piece. We had plenty of room at this place, but not many trees. We were able to put out the awning in the morning and by afternoon the trees were shading our patio, so it was nice.
We met up with one of the couples we met in O’Sullivan’s in Othella and had dinner. Cle Elum is a really small town so they knew everybody. We had a great dinner and a couple of drinks and headed home. We did more relaxing in Cle Elum than anything else, but it is a very beautiful place.
We were here for the 4th and our friends said we had the prime location to view the fireworks display. I was just thinking, sure, if I can stay up that late. The fireworks were to begin at 10:00 PM. We waited and watched, but they never started. I think they cancelled them due to a recent fire in the area. So we waited up for nothing. The sky was still pretty right at 10:00 PM anyway.
We took a drive over to Yakima which is a pretty large city especially compared to Cle Elum. They have a Super Walmart and some vitamin stores we needed to go to. It was only a little over an hour drive and we were in the desert again. Washington has been so lush and green I was taken by surprise. It was still beautiful, I just had no idea.
Sitting outside the first evening we arrived we had a visitor.
Next on our journey we are heading to Randle, Washington and staying at the Maple Grove Resort. This place is really close to Mount Rainier and we saw her beauty all the way here. This park is one of the KM Group of resorts and has a golf course and other very nice amenities. But Dennis and I took a stroll and found what appeared to be the old entrance into the park and sites that were in the woods. It was awesome, but not very well kept. We would have totally taken one of those 30 amp spots had we known. It was actually cool back there. There were only two RVs in that section and the sites were far apart, not like the newer section all crammed together. I wish I had taken my camera to show you. It reminded me of how my family used to camp when we were kids - back in our tent camping days. The spots were back in the woods and pretty secluded. The newer part of this park mostly has 30 amp spots, but they have a row of 50 without any trees. Since the heat wave, we thought we’d go for the 50 amp row. Dang it!
There are cherry trees loaded with cherries everywhere in this park! They are beautiful.
We headed out to Mount Rainier National Park. The hikes in the ‘old growth forests’ and the majestic views of the mountain are totally worth our trip. We planned a route to get there that was a little different than Google wanted us to go, so, of course, we passed up the road and had to turn back. Cost us an additional thirty minutes. Sorry sweetheart!
Her majesty!
Still snow on the ground even through this heatwave
This kid from Germany ya think?
I am not sure what is more beautiful,
the man or the water!!
These old cars behind us on the road.
You see old cars all over the place up here.
The forest could not be any more beautiful, ya think?
So rainforesty with all the moss!
I cannot even calculate how tall those are.
See the girth of this downed tree??
Dennis keeps saying, ‘We aren’t even to the redwoods yet, just wait!’
We met a family from Texas on the trail in the park and they are basically on the same path we are. We shared a few tips with each other before heading on, of course, only to meet them again in other parts of the park. Such a nice family.
Mount Rainier is one of the 96 fourteeners (mountains over 14,000 feet and some other distinctions apply to these classification as well) in the US. All 96 of these are found west of the Mississippi River. See why they fascinate me so? Rainier is the tallest mountain in the Cascades and is an active volcano. I did not know this before I got there. I don’t think you can run from a volcano eruption.
It is here that we say goodbye to the lovely and talented Washington State. We have so enjoyed spending time with you and hope to return and maybe spend a couple of months here. In the summer of course.
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