Back to a wilderness of marvelous ferns

Day 13
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Kent, WA to Packwood, WA
119 miles

Check-out time at the Seattle-Tacoma KOA was 11 AM and we didn’t make it! Emily was exhausted after three days of sleep deprivation and we decided to let her sleep it off. By the time you feed four people breakfast, take showers and break down a household for transit, 11 AM can still seem early.

Fortunately, our planned trip today was shorter than average. Although it was just a bit longer than 100 miles, it took almost four hours because the roads to Mount Rainier were so dark and twisty (words chosen for Emily’s sake—a reference to Grey’s Anatomy). We drove much of the way at speeds below 40 MPH. The last half of the trip took us through very thick, dense, evergreen forests that reminded everyone of the places where Twin Peaks and Twilight were filmed.

Our destination was Ohanapecosh Campground on the southern edge of Mt. Rainier National Park. Words cannot do justice to the setting where we camped. Our site backed up to a 25-foot embankment at the base of which was the Ohanapecosh River, a 50-foot-wide, fast-flowing, brilliant bluish-green mountain torrent. The sound of the water rushing over rocks and logs was quite loud, yet soothing—a marked contrast to the traffic noise at the KOA in Kent.

By the time we arrived at the park, the sun had broken through the cloud cover. We have noticed a pattern in this region where days break overcast and then the sun comes out in the mid afternoon. This is the opposite of what we knew in Maryland. If you have a shot at a cloudless sky at home it is almost always at daybreak and soon thereafter.

We set up our trailer in a grove of 180-foot-tall firs and pines spaced about 5 to 30 feet apart. It was the kind of place where very little grows on the ground between the trees, and the earth was made soft under foot by a thick build-up of pine needles. Think Swallow Falls State Park, Maryland, on steroids. We had read reviews online which said Ohanapecosh was especially beautiful and we found it exceeded its reputation.

After setting up, Elliot and Frank took a 2-mile hike upstream and back through a forest of massive trees to Silver Falls, which was about 100 feet tall. Elliot said, “In Columbia, when you walk through the woods you see maybe a few really big trees; here all of them are huge.” Although it remained dry here for our first day, there is ample evidence that this was typically a very moist place. The high, dense canopy which filters out sunlight coupled with frequent rains makes this a natural habitat for mosses and ferns. Most of the forest floor was covered with ferns of many varieties, including, according to a Park Service ranger-naturalist we spoke to, licorice, sword, maidenhair, deer, lady and oak. In places where slopes faced the north, the entire forest floor was covered in a carpet of moss.

Along the way to Silver Falls, we took a short side trial to Hot Springs, a geothermal rivulet that ran downhill toward the creek. Algae in beautiful turquoise, gold and indigo hues grew in the cascading hot water.

We cooked and ate our dinner on the largest picnic table any of us had seen—it could have easily held eight people per side—only a few feet from the edge of the embankment and overlooking the river.

We then lit a campfire and roasted marshmallows. We all went to bed at 10 PM when the sun went down. Frank read to the rest of the family the first chapter of Sasquatch by Roland Smith, set in the Mount Saint Helens region (here). The campground was DARK and CHILLY overnight—perfect for sleeping.

Tomorrow: “The Mountain” (as Mt. Rainier is referred to by people throughout the Seattle region)