Gaining Perspective from the Mountains to the Sea
After our great experiences at Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks we weren’t expecting to be overly impressed with Mt. Rainier. While it’s the tallest peak in all the US parks we will visit, it is also a really small national park and one that we hadn’t heard a great deal about before our trip. The only reason it got added to our itinerary is because it was close to the route from Seattle to Oregon and also close to Mt. St. Helens, which we had wanted to visit. We stayed in Packwood, a small town on the south side of the park which did not have the same energy as other small towns we’d stayed in near national parks. Cameron had picked out a hike, the Skyline Trail, for us that was supposed to offer great views of Mt. Rainier, its glaciers, and some vistas of the surrounding mountains. It was cloudy again on Friday morning as we left Packwood so we weren’t hopeful of getting to see much of the peak of Rainier. As we made the one hour drive to the Paradise Visitor Center, our starting point for the hike, we were happy to see that the clouds were clearing. As we came around a curve on the winding road, Mt. Rainier rose up before us, dwarfing the mountains on all sides of it. Unless you’re used to seeing mountains of this size, it is awe-inspiring the first time you see it in person. Rainier is also an active volcano, which adds to the mystique.
The Skyline Trail is a Rainier favorite because it takes you through different landscapes while also offering great views in all directions. It starts with a lot of elevation gain through an alpine meadow showcasing an assortment of wildflowers, plants, and precocious rodents. Before long you are above the snow line and working along the ridges of the lower part of Rainier’s south slope. This is when you get the first good looks at the glaciers on Rainier, which radiate a cool blue glow in the morning light. The highlight of the hike is Panorama Point. The skies had remained clear so we were able to see Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and Mt. St. Helens when facing south, our backs to Rainier. The trail is a loop and the descent takes you down and around a rockier side of the mountain. It’s not as scenic as the alpine meadow on the ascent, but is more reminiscent of the terrain you’d expect on the side of a volcano. We all ended up loving Mt. Rainier and the hike and are so glad that we took the time to visit it.
View south from Panorama Point; from left to right you can see Mt. Adams, Mt, Hood (more distant), and Mt. St. Helens.
We ended up deciding to skip our planned stop at Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center. Ada wasn’t feeling great and it would have added time onto our drive to Newberg, OR. Plus, the Visitor Center doesn’t get you very close to the mountain and we had been able to get some good views of it from our hike on Rainier. We were all starving so we stopped at a bar and grill in a tiny mountain town. It definitely qualified as a dive bar, but the food was good and it was a reminder that stepping out of my comfort zone often works out just fine.
Perhaps the hardest part of planning our trip was figuring out what to do in the few days we had in Oregon. It’s a big state with so many possibilities. The entire coast looked amazing, Portland seemed like a cool city, and the mountains and rivers had a great deal to offer as well. I selfishly wanted to spend some time in the Willamette Valley and visit some wineries. Realizing we would need a return trip of at least a week to really do Oregon the right way, we settled on two nights in wine country and then one night in Eugene. We had an Airbnb in Newberg and the kids had their own rooms so they were thrilled with the setup.
We started our Saturday with a visit to an urgent care (for Ada’s sore throat) and a Meineke (to get freon added to my car). Oregon was the first time we’d hit temps over 80 since we left home so a poorly functioning AC was more noticeable and needed to be addressed for all our sakes. Ada tested negative for strep and instead appeared to be suffering from allergies to the hundreds of things currently blooming in Washington and Oregon. She felt well enough to be out and about for the day so we picked a couple of family friendly wineries to visit. We picked up a picnic lunch and went to Stoller Family Estate. The kids played disc golf and tried out a tire swing while Cameron and I sampled some rosé and pinot noir.
After Stoller we stopped to check out McMinnville before going to Brooks Wines. We nixed our final winery stop in favor of picking up some charcuterie supplies for dinner in at our Airbnb. It was the first time since Bozeman that we’d taken it easy for an entire day. That night, Cameron and I made the decision to take a big detour to the coast on our way to Eugene the next day. It would double our driving time, but we’re so used to four and five hour drives that it wasn’t a big deal to us.
On Sunday morning we got packed up and headed northwest towards Cannon Beach. Cameron is a movie buff and the Haystack Rocks at Cannon Beach have been featured in many iconic movies, including The Goonies and Point Break, so he wanted to make sure we stopped there. Like the Washington coast, you are driving through mountains right before you hit the beach in Oregon. It’s a much prettier, though more tedious, drive to the beach than what we are used to in NC. Cannon Beach, probably because of the Haystack Rocks, is a popular spot so it was really crowded and we had trouble finding parking. It was also about 10 degrees cooler at the shore than it was inland due to the consistent wind. Despite the throngs of people on the beach, the Haystack Rocks were impressive. We then continued to head south, stopping at a historic Coast Guard Boathouse in Garibaldi and taking in the gorgeous coastal views as we drove part of the Three Capes Scenic Loop. Our last stop was at Pacific City where the kids decided to swim in the 60 degree water. I will admit that I am spoiled by NC’s gulf stream waters and don’t like being in the ocean enough to ever want to swim in water that temperature. But, to each their own. I will hold your towel and cheer you on from the warm sand.
We left the coast and made our way to Eugene, Oregon by dinner time. Neil, who was with us on our camping trip, lives in Eugene and offered to give us a walking tour of his alma mater, the University of Oregon. It was a really pretty campus with lots of large trees, including some redwoods. There was lots of new construction, largely at the benefit of Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike who ran track at Oregon. Thankfully, most of the newer buildings on campus were less flashy than the yellow and green football and basketball uniforms that Nike produces for the Ducks each season. After checking out campus, Neil kindly treated us to dinner at McMenamins and then we all enjoyed the line-worthy ice cream at Prince Pucklers. Since it’s just the four of us on this trip, it’s nice to spend time with other people so it was a treat to get to see Neil. We really enjoyed getting to know him on our camping trip and appreciated that he took the time to hang out with us in Eugene. We hope to see him again when we make our return trip to the state.
On Monday morning we were up early and our destination was Bandon Dunes, which is a somewhat remote resort on the southern Oregon coast that consists of four 18-hole golf courses. Cameron and Jackson both love to play golf and Bandon is home to some of the highest-rated public courses in the country. Multiple people that had played there before told Cameron that if we were going to be close that we really should stop so they could play. Cameron had gotten them a tee time for Pacific Dunes, which along with the rest of the resort, is situated up on a bluff above the coast. The golf course was exceptional, with views out over an empty beach below. It was also really quiet. Ada and I walked the first 7 holes with them and then went into the town of Bandon for lunch at Tony’s Crab Shack. We then came back to Bandon Dunes and did a short hike down to the beach. When we’d left the golf course to go get lunch it was sunny, but when we returned the fog had set in. We found some gigantic seaweed that had washed up that Ada enjoyed jumping on to burst the pod. The Oregon coast sand is very fine and there are very few shells. We met back up with Cameron and Jackson after their round. Jackson played really well and had the most pars he’d ever had in a round and Cameron played better than he had expected. I’m so glad that we added Bandon to our itinerary as I know it is an experience that they will both never forget.
Our drive from Bandon to our next destination, Eureka, California, was four hours along the coast and through redwood forests. The southern Oregon coast was just as beautiful as the northern part we had visited the day before. I admire the foresight of Oregon’s governor Oswald West, who in 1913 declared that the Oregon coast up to the high tide line was a highway, which was a predecessor to the Beach Bill of 1967 that preserves 362 miles of the beach for the “public’s uninterrupted use”. While West was problematic in many other ways, he was an early preservationist and without him the Oregon coast could look quite different today. It’s such a contrast to the commercialization of the beaches on the east coast to which we are accustomed. If the water was only a little warmer it would be perfection.
Our hotel in Eureka was a pleasant surprise as it had a heated outdoor pool, sizeable hot tub, and adjoining patio designed for spending time outdoors. We all slept in on Tuesday and took our time making plans for the day. Cameron and I took turns watching the kids in the pool and we set aside the afternoon for a short hike in Redwoods National Park. To be honest, I had pretty low expectations for this park. I was wrong. Our short hike through the redwoods was breathtaking. It wasn’t a crowded trail so we were able to fully appreciate the silence created by the sound-absorbing trees and thick undergrowth of ferns. I’m a short person anyway and the scale of everything in the forest makes you feel so small. It was just another moment in this trip where I’ve realized that nature trumps man every single time. My assumptions of what nature offers are always exceeded and man’s perception of how they can control and manipulate nature is always underestimated. Anyone that thinks that man can bend nature to its will just needs to go spend some time in any one of our many state and national parks to gain a little perspective.
We spent the evening after our hike at Redwoods hanging around the pool and getting Ada packed up for field hockey camp at Stanford University. It was a 5.5 hour drive from Eureka to the campus and it was hard to leave her there after being with her almost nonstop for almost five weeks. I’m so glad that our timing worked out for her to go to the camp and spend time on the beautiful Stanford campus. She misses playing field hockey on a regular basis so I know she will love these next three days. And, we think it’s important for the kids to see that there are a lot of options out there when it comes to going to college. Cameron and I both stayed relatively close to home when we went to Wake, but we want them both to know that there is a big world out there if they want to take the leap.
