We left my cousin's house on May 5, and I was really disappointed that we never got to see Mt. Rainier or Mt. St. Helens. I kept looking though, to no avail. We headed east from the Cinebar, WA, area toward Whites Pass. It was a pretty good road but got curvy and steep the further along we went. The first picture looks a little eerie and Mt. Rainier was off to the left somewhere. As we continued to climb, we once again saw snow. The second picture is a ski area at Whites Pass. It was only about 4500 feet elevation, but had lots of snow left. The third picture is another mountain that I thought was interesting.
As we descended, I noticed the vegetation changing. The fourth picture is on the eastern slopes of the Cascades, quite a change from the western. I remember learning in school that as the clouds come in and rise along the mountains, they drop their moisture, and by the time they start the downward slope, they are dry, hence the change in vegetation. We dropped down into a valley with many vineyards and apple orchards.
When we got to Yakima, WA, we had the satellite radio on pretty loud and the GPS told us to turn. However, the place we turned was 82 NORTH, and we needed to go south. So we were committed to the turn and continued down the road, winding up in a little place called Selah. We were finally able to get turned around and found our road.
We spent the night at Hermiston, OR, a small town but the RV park where we stayed seemed to be on a main thoroughfare. You know where I'm going with this, right? Lots of road noise. So Gary put in the "Thunderstorm" CD that his brother gave him and it played all night. It really helped. We left early in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of northeast Oregon. We did some steep climbing and then came down, finally crossing over into Idaho. The last picture you see was typical of Idaho...flat country with snow-capped mountains to the south. I wondered how it would feel to wake up every morning and look at those mountains. We saw many dairy farms and farming operations in Idaho.
We stopped at Glenns Ferry, ID, to spend the night at a small RV park. It was well kept with arbor vitae planted along the edges of the park. I heard lots of road noise and it was next to a railroad track with several tracks. Trains kept coming through during daylight but we didn't hear any in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, we had to bring out the old thunderstorm CD for me.
We took off around 8 am, once again headed east. As we progressed east, the vegetation became more like desert plants. We crossed over into Utah, again amazed at the tall snow-capped mountains to our left.
The trip through the northeast corner of Utah was pretty, too, and as we progressed on toward Wyoming, the mountains were no longer snow-capped but were orange-red in color with lots of rock formations and green juniper trees on the sides of the mountains. It made a nice contrast with the bright blue sky...when you could see blue sky, that is. Skies have been mostly grey today but we were thankful there were no strong winds, rain, or severe weather while we traveled.
We drove a long time today and are staying at Ft. Bridger, WY, tonight. The RV park is a little pricey for us, so we're not going to stay another day, although Gary could use a rest. I will say this...it's quiet and the wifi is GREAT. For a change! We're anticipating driving all the way across WY tomorrow if all goes well.
Once again, thanks for reading my blog! More later.
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