Paradise Resort, Silver Creek, Washington

Tuesday, July 10 - We drove from Portland Fairview RV Park 95 miles on I-5 and Rt. 12 to Paradise Resort, Silver Creek, Washington, a Thousand Trails park. The roads in the park are all gravel, and create a lot of dust when people drive by. It is hot here as expected since the news broadcast says this is unprecedented heat wave over the whole state of Washington. The temperatures are 26 degrees above average. Of course, the Lamps are here so why shouldn’t it be so hot we can’t cool our home down below 85 degrees. Mitzy is really uncomfortable due to all her hair.

Wednesday, July 11 - Drove to Mt. St. Helens around noon. Due to the extreme heat forecasted, we wanted to be out of the RV until it started to cool down again after dinner. It was 101 degrees in some areas we traveled, but was a cool 92 degrees at the visitors' center at Mt. St. Helens. The views were beyond what we could imagine. We were able to get five miles from Mt. St. Helens at one viewpoint.

At the Forestry viewing area, we were at the first level looking out over what looked like grey mud. We met a Weyhauser Forester in charge of 680,000 acres 15 years before the explosion that took his forest away. He didn’t want a desk job, but now has one. Within four weeks of the eruption, the Weyerhaeuser foresters and scientists planted research study plots to determine the effects of ash on reforestation. As long as the ash was scraped away so that the 7” seedlings’ roots could be placed directly in the underlying mineral soil, the trees would live. In total, 18.4 million trees were hand planted one-by-one on over 45,500 acres. Douglas-fir and noble fir with some lodgepole pine and black cottonwoods were planted. The average height of the first trees planted in 1981 average 60 ft.

Mt. St. Helens – “At 8:32 a.m. on May 18, 1980, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook Mount St. Helens, triggering a massive explosion. The release of gases rapped inside the volcano sent 1,300 vertical feet of mountaintop rocketing outward to the north. Super-heated ash roared 60,000 feet into a cloudless blue sky. The cataclysmic blast – carrying winds that reached 670 mph and temperatures of 800 degrees flattened 230 sq. mi. of forest. Elk, deer and other wildlife were obliterated. Fifty-seven people were killed. The largest landslide in recorded history swept through the Toutle River Valley, choking pristine rivers and lakes with mud, ash, and shattered timber, eradicating trout and salmon. After the eruption, only a moonscape remained.” The blast killed two in an RV at the gorge and have not been recovered yet. Trees were blown down twenty miles away. Ash four inches deep covered farms and houses 150 miles away . More people would have died if Weyheuser employees were not on site early in the morning to assist.
Twenty-seven years after the eruption, the mountain continues to astound visitors. A lava dome on the crater floor has grown steadily since 1980, adding 88 million cubic-yards of material and 1,363 ft. in height. Earthquakes and minor eruptions are common today.

Thursday, July 12 - We drove about an hour to reach the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. We knew it would be a long day’s drive with a lot of stops for photos. There are no words to describe the magnitude of Mount Rainier and the peaks surrounding it. Of all the volcanoes and mountains we have seen, this one takes the top of our list of the “best ever”. Viewed from a few miles away, Mt. Rainier appears to hover in the sky like a massive mirage - 14,411-foot-high dormant volcano. The road to Paradise Visitor’s Center is twisted and with hair-pin turns through towering Douglas firs and beautiful stands of red cedars. We saw incredible water falls along the way. The higher we drove the forest thined out, and we can see Mt. Rainier’s upper slopes. We were thrilled at the stunning array of wild-flowers carpeting the meadows as well as the sides of the roads.

On the way we saw the glacier-gouged Reflection Lakes, but the reflection of Mt. Rainier could not be seen because of the ripples in the lake. We saw the bridge spanning the narrow gorge, known as Box Canyon. From the top of the bridge we gazed at the roiling river some 180 feet below. Mount Rainier is one of thirteen active volcanoes in the Cascade Range including Mount Adams, which we opted not to drive to due to the distance from here.

Each year, about twenty earthquakes jolt Mount Rainier, making it the second most seismically active volcano in the northern Cascade Range after Mount St. Helens. Steam vents in the summit crater are evidence that Mount Rainier will ERUPT again.
To the casual observer, glaciers may seem to be rigid and unchanging, but in fact, they deform and flow continuously. Glaciers flow under the influence of gravity by the combined action of sliding over the rock on which they lie and by deformation, the gradual displacement between and within individual ice crystals. Maximum speeds occur near the surface and along the center line of the glacier.
During May, 1970, Nisqually Glacier was measured moving as fast as 29 inches per day. Flow rates are generally greater in summer than in winter, probably due to the presence of large quantities of melt-water at the glacier base. Retreat of the Little Ice Age glaciers was slow until about 1920 when retreat became more rapid. Between the height of the Little Ice Age in 1950, Mount Rainier's glaciers lost about one-quarter of their length. Beginning in 1950 and continuing through the early 1980's, however, many of the major glaciers advanced in response to relatively cooler temperatures of the mid-century. The Carbon, Cowlitz, Emmons, and Nisqually Glaciers advanced during the late 1970's and early 1980's as a result of high snowfalls during the 1960's and 1970's. Since the early-1980's and through 1992, however, many glaciers have been thinning and retreating and some advances have slowed, perhaps in response to drier conditions that have prevailed at Mount Rainier since 1977.

On November 6 and 7, 2006 continual heavy rains blanketed the mountain and overfilled the rivers and tributaries. Flooding occurred in every corner of the park, disrupting daily operations and changing the landscape. The flood was historical and unlike any other that has been recorded in its 108-year history. The 18 inches of rain recorded at Paradise in 36 hours exceeded all previous records. And record amounts fell throughout other regions of the park. The heavy snow melt this spring didn’t help things either. The park had to remain closed for six months due to the damage to the roads, utilities, and structures. We certainly saw a lot of evidence of the felled trees and diverted waterways. Also, there were many parts of the road that were blocked off due to the road landslides and we also drove on roads that had huge boulders and rocks that had slid recently down the sharp granite walls.
“Earth’s climate is changing, with global temperature now rising at a rate unprecedented in the experience of modern human society.” Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 2004.

As we traveled out of the area, we saw this beautiful valley and lake.

We were not able to finish our drive up to Sunrise which is one of the driest locations in the park. I was looking forward to seeing the dry conditions, and the difference in plants and trees. There is a lot of wind and due to the location there is a very short growing season. Oh well, it was getting late anyway, so we were happy to have seen all that we did.
We got through the drive and back home by 4:30 pm, so the temperature inside was a constant 85 degrees because the a/c can’t possibly cool it down any better with 101 degrees outside. Fortunately, it was cooler by midnight and we slept well.

b:if cond='data:blog.pageType !="item"> >