We’ve pretty much been doing nothing for the past week except hanging out at the Travel Camp at Fort Lewis. Unfortunately our time there ran out today so we moved over to the Ranier View Adult RV Park in Graham, WA this morning.
Getting ready to travel and hitching up with the cast on Neil’s foot was harder than normal but not as hard as we thought it would be. After getting an almost empty propane tank filled (we scored 2 buck a gallon propane at the Travel Camp) we finished up dumping, stowing, and hitching and hit the road about 1030 for our 26 mile drive. Hopping in I-5 North we went about 7 miles up then got off on WA-512 and then turned right onto WA-161 through Puyallup and Graham to the park.
Here’s a quick phone shot of our parking spot #13 on the top row as well as a shot of Mount Ranier looking to the southeast. I’ll have Neil grab some better photos as soon as a less hazy day comes by.
Ranier View is an adults only park…it’s got a nice view to the southeast toward the mountain due to the terraced nature of the property. We’ve got good satellite visibility, pretty decent internet, and the price is right at $500 a month including electricity. The sites are a bit closer together than we like but it’s really a pretty decent place to park if we have to be in the area for 6 or 8 weeks. We also looked at a place out in Elma, WA about 30 or 40 miles west of Fort Lewis…the people there were nicer and some of our RV-Dreams are staying there so we took a ride out and looked at it last week. Unfortunately the only sites they would rent us from not to after Labor Day were in the back of the park and the other RVs back in that area were…let’s call them well experienced RVs. The up front nicer spots were not available for long periods; guess they can charge higher rates for those so we passed on it and came here. We met Vance in the office this morning and had previously met Tina the manager (and maybe owner as well)…both were very helpful and offered to do anything Neil needs while we are here.
Mount Ranier is 14,411 feet high and has a topographic prominence of 13,211 feet (this is the distance it sticks up above the surrounding plain) and is the most heavily glaciered peak in the lower 48 states according to wikipedia. It’s actually quite striking; in the photo below the mountain is almost 28 miles away…we’re sitting at 963 feet elevation here in the park and it’s essentially flat all the way to the base of the mountain. Since it’s still an active volcano (actually a stratovolcano) we really hope it doesn’t decide to erupt while we are here although we’re not in the Puyallup River valley that it’s lahar mud flows almost always go down. Not likely we think; it’s shown no indication of activity for many years and is (according to the vulcanologists) highly unlikely to erupt with no warming. The mountain is behind our house from this viewpoint; the summit is just to the right of the ventilation fan exhaust you can see poking up above where the awning is.
We’ll be here at Ranier View until at least Labor Day…Neil has an appointment next week on Thursday to get another X-ray and see what his prognosis is. We’ve gone ahead and cancelled all of our previous plans until then and will hopefully be able to pick up our planned travels in Utah’s national parks as we head back east. We’ve got an appointment in early October at Junction City to get our slides fixed and have reservations first in Cedar Key FL for Oct 25 then back in Fort Myers starting Nov 1. Depending on how things go…we’ll pickup the parks in Utah or maybe just hit Salt Lake City or someplace else instead if he’s still in a cast or boot and can’t hike or kayak.
Connie is heading off to Houston from Jul 29-Aug 3 for the ASCLS Annual Convention…she gets to meet up with her med tech buddies and get some continuing education that she needs for her certification and California license. Neil will just hang out here while she’s gone…he’ll have BAT and can drive it easily since it’s an automatic transmission. We’ll run out next weekend and make sure we’re stocked up on TV dinners and beer so he doesn’t have to cook while she is gone.
Cyas.
Travels with Gunther and Kara 
Rainier’s such a pretty view, isn’t it? If you visit the University of Washington campus in Seattle, and go on the path/street heading to Drumheller Fountain (just ask for directions, it is the only fountain on campus), you can see Mt. Rainier and the fountain underneath. It makes for quite the idyllic scene. 😉
Yeah, a very nice view indeed. We’ll definitely check the fountain out if we get up to campus…although with a broken foot I’m not sure that Neil will be up to much walking around.
Oh, that would be hard. I would say that you can drive up to the roundabout that is right near the spot (around 50 ft away), drop him off, then go park, but the parking can get expensive I’ve heard. If you still want to look into it, it is Gate 5 turning in from 15th Ave.
We may drive up that way anyway…I’m already getting bored sitting around the house. We drove out to Snoqualmie Falls a week or so back and are heading down to erie the Columbia River gorge next week or the week after I think…although most of the really good waterfalls will not be visible without a hike that I’m certainly not going on. Our experience with Seattle parking is that not only is it expensive but real hard to find as well.
Yeah, can’t argue that. Did you like Snoqualmie Falls? Our family owns a little restaurant over in Fall City in the next town over called Small Fryes. I know this is some pretty close personal information, but we are very proud of our shakes and fries, or at least everyone says they like them best. 🙂 The Gorge is very neat, I once went there to see David Bowie as a kid. Now that I think about it, Washington has a lot more beautiful natural landmarks than I realized.
Snoqualmie was pretty cool, Connie had been there 10 years or so ago when there was no visitor center and you just pulled over to the side of the road. We were planning some hikes in the gorge originally but will skip those now and just do the drive ups.
neil
The three kinds of stress…nuclear, cooking and a&&hole. Jello is the key to the relationship.
Are you near Crystal Mountain? If so, you can take a gondola ride up to the top and there’s a really nice restaurant at the top! That was a great day with H, J and L 2 summers ago!
It’s about 50 miles from here; we may drove over there and check it out once Connie gets back from her trip to the convention in Houston on the 3rd