Ring of fire. Volcanos under snow

It was on a second or third day in Seattle. There was a huge wheel on the waterfront. Ola took Maciek for a ride. From the very top she was showing him skyline, Space Needle, mountains on the other side of the bay, and suddenly Maciek looking in totally opposite direction says "Mom, look at that mountain!". And there it was, something Ola didn’t expected to see. Mt. Rainier.

How did it happen that we hadn’t seen it before? The weather was beautiful, sky clear and it’s not easy not to notice Mt. Rainier. But we managed. Maybe it’s because we spent most time in the city - it’s easy with panoramic view to the west, bay doesn’t block any view, it’s more difficult with other directions. But once we saw Mt. Rainier we could see it all the time. Maybe it was too surreal before. Just like with dwarfs or optimistic Poles. You have to see to believe.

And as we saw it we couldn’t skip it. First we had to name it, as in the beginning we thought it’s Mt. St. Helens. But we quickly realized St. Helens doesn’t look like this anymore. It looked similar until May 18, 1980, when it erupted. The explosion destroyed the top 1200 feet. "Do you want to see St. Helens?" - asked Kathryn, our Mercer Island host. And not waiting for an answer she brought some sand in a jar "That’s what it looks like, it was in our back yard" - she said.

St. Helens eruption blew into the sky enormous volume of volcanic ashes. The mountain changed completely and some of it was in Kathryn’s jar. There are a lot of before and after pictures on Internet. They are unbelievable. We didn’t go to see it though, after all we already saw it in a nice living room on Mercer Island, and it was not really on our way.

People who lived in the area back in 1980 said it was really loud and there were a lot of ashes, even though the wind blew most of it towards east, all the way to Idaho. Not many people died, just 57, and it’s because it was one of the first well predicted eruptions. The area was evacuated and those who died were the ones that refused to leave. Most of deaths were caused by shock wave. It’s direction could be seen afterwards on the broken trees. It also killed one photo reporter, who didn’t evacuate and kept taking pictures until the end, his camera was found afterwards.

After getting to know all this information about Mt. St. Helens we actually decided to see another celebrity of Pacific Ring of Fire - Mt. Rainier. We found boondocking hosts nearby - Kelly and Mary. Following their advice we packed long forgotten winter coats, sweaters and boots and we went to see the mountain up close. It was a good moment for that, they just opened the road - after all it was mid-May!!!

Kelly i Mary

As it usually happens in States, the road itself is worth a trip. Going on "706" you can see Mt. Rainier long before you get to visitors center. The closer to the mountain the more snow there is. It’s warm and green and suddenly there are white patches among the trees. Then there are more and more and then just before visitors center there is more than 6 feet of snow on each side of the road. After we got there at the foothill we understood why it was just opened. Two-story-high building was almost hidden in snow.

We had lots of fun, especially Maciek. We had our winter boots on and t-shirts, and we had a snowball fight. After half an hour we decided it was enough, hoping the young ones (kids, not us…) will not get cold. Both the views and the experience of snow in the sunny weather were great.

On our way back we stopped in Recycled Spirits of Iron Sculpture Park. It’s a place on „706” Kelly recommended. It’s amazing in here in States that you can find art in so many places you wouldn’t expect it at all. We would find places like this in the middle of nowhere in Texas or New Mexico. And this one, with sculptures of Dana Klennerta is simply overwhelming.

He makes them out of metal into using simple elements like bicycle seats, buckles, old car parts, propane bottles, washing machines, pretty much everything metal he can get into his hands. Then he makes out of it horses, giraffes, monumental Christs or sculptures based on pop culture.

Different forms, adding wood and giving life back to old junk. You can wander among the sculptures and wonder… We don’t know much about art but this gallery was a very impressive one. And it’s for free (donations accepted from any political option). The author doesn’t really look for popularity. If you don’t know it’s there you can easily miss it. It’s not like with some attractions in let’s say Florida which you know about 20 miles before only because all the billboards next to highway.

It’s still shocking for us that everything here is based on trust. In a gift shop there are expensive sculptures and nobody is watching it. You can call the artist or you can just take the sculpture and leave the money on the table … Unfortunately, even the smallest ones where too expensive for us. And we already carry one metal piece of art created by Spotty in Texas.

Mt. Rainier was not the only volcanic mountain around. There is quite a few of them going as far as Canada and Alaska. As our next stop was Portland we decided to see one more, Mt Hood. We went there not only for snow and views but, most of all, to see Timberline Lodge, known from "The Shining".

Mt. Hood is a good day-trip destination from Portland. On the same trip you can see waterfalls of Columbia River gorge (we’ll write about them later) and orchards at the foothill of Mt. Hood. In sightseeing we are bipolar: either it takes forever, much longer than any of guidebooks say, or we do Japanese-style photos from car windows. On Mt Hood we did the first thing, realizing that we’ll see the waterfalls later on going with our trailer east towards Idaho.

On Internet we found out that people do whole Mt. Hood Loop as a day trip from Portland. How do people do it in 12 hours we don’t know. We just touched the mountain and orchards and it took us almost 10 hours. We needed another day for waterfalls (we even skipped some of them) and it was still not enough.

What is to be seen on Mt Hood Loop? First of all, the mountain itself. It’s cool to see step by step all the places from the guidebook, but the mountain and Timberline Lodge are absolutely must-see places. You can skip the rest if you don’t have much time. We stopped just in one place on the way, in Government Camp. It’s a small town at the foothill, which was built for Timberline Lodge construction workers. Hotel/ski center was built within WPA - Works Progress Administration, which was an idea how to provide to unemployed people after Great Depression. As everyone knows here in States there is a different recipe for crises. Instead of cutting expenses local but most of all federal authorities invest, start public works and even world wars (just kidding of course).

Government Camp

What was great about WPA is that in many projects it was not only about providing jobs to unskilled men but also about ambitious cooperation of designers and talented artists, who wouldn’t get hired by anyone else back then. That’s how for federal money such gems like Timberline Lodge were built. Even though the inside was surprising for "The Shining" fans, from outside it’s really impressive. Standing in front of the building you can easily forget that there is a huge parking and ski routs behind you.

Second floor window under snow

Inside is totally different than in a famous horror. Smaller, much cozier, wrapped around a fireplace. View to the mountain could be more exposed, but it’s still nice. And even overpriced coffee tastes great there.

Timberline Lodge

On our way back we stopped at one of fruit stands. It looked like little roads in Tarczyn and Grojec area, near Warsaw. The difference was that the stand was just an invitation to go further. And there in the yard were apples, pears and fresh juices. Unfortunately all in American "organic" prices. We did buy some fruit anyway, we weighed, noted down and left money in the money jar at the counter. Another difference...

On our way to Portland we didn’t stop at waterfalls as it was getting dark. We would go there pulling Eddie. Just a bit more than 100 miles and a few waterfalls. Seems like not much, but in fact it’s a lot and it requires lots of time. Anyway, before we tell you about the falls, it’s time for Portland.