Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Take Me Down to the Paradise City

 

Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.

Yes, it was sunny in Paradise. Sunday and Monday. That makes 4 sunny days in the last 40. Gotta be some kind of record.

On the way to Paradise, I made two stops. First up was Lewis and Clark State Park.

Lewis and Clark Sign

Lewis and Clark_009

Lewis and Clark State Park is a 621-acre camping park situated in one of the last major stands of old-growth forest in the state. Coniferous trees, streams, wetlands, dense vegetation and wet prairie comprise the park environment. There are plenty of hiking trails and horse trails as well. The most popular trail is the famous “Trail of the Beer”.

Lewis and Clark Beer Trail

OK, I may have altered that just a little bit…

Next up was Ike Kinswa State Park.

Ike Kinswa Sign

Ike Kinswa State Park is a 454-acre camping park with 46,000 feet of freshwater shoreline on the north side of Mayfield Lake. The campsites are forested and available year-round. Some of the campsites were the largest I have ever seen.

Ike Kinswa_005

There is a separate day use area with a swim beach and picnic areas.

Ike Kinswa Swim Beach

Mayfield Lake has good fishing for bass and trout. There is a boat ramp and shore fishing is also popular.

Ike Kinswa Boat Ramp

Ike Kinswa Lake View 2

A couple of miles west is Paradise, a Thousand Trails campground where I will spend the next two nights. Here is the view from their driveway.

Paradise View

The body of water is Mayfield Lake. Turning a bit to the right you get this view.

Mt. St. Helens 1

Yep, that is Mt. St. Helens, which blew it’s top on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am.

Mt. St. Helens 2

OK, let’s go set up a tent.

Paradise Sign

My Element is very dirty and didn’t want to be in the photo.

Paradise Campsite 3

Notice anything unusual about my tent? I left the fly off on Sunday night. That is how I like it, looking up at the stars.

Since the weather was so nice, I took a stroll around the campgrounds two lakes after checking out the pool area and other fun stuff.

It’s still early in the season, but the staff was working hard getting the place ready.

Paradise Pool Area

Looks good. As I walk toward the lakes I pass by the store and places to play tennis, basketball, and horseshoes.

Paradise Store

Paradise Tennis

Paradise Basketball

Paradise Horseshoes

Here is where you can borrow a kayak or canoe for a little paddling fun.

Paradise Boats 2

You can barely see some Canadian Geese in the lower right of the photo. I’ll see if I can sneak up. Looks like a family with 4 younger ones.

Paradise Geese 1

Oops, got too close.

Paradise Geese 4

The babies still have their downy feathers, but they will be gone soon.

Paradise Geese 6

I followed the path around the lakes. Gotta take advantage of the weather when you can.

Paradise Small Lake 1

Paradise Small Lake 2

Paradise Small Lake 3

Paradise Small Lake 4

The flowers are in bloom and the smell is wonderful.

Paradise Flowers

At this point I reach the larger lake.

Paradise Big Lake 1

Paradise Big Lake 3

Paradise Big Lake 4

Starting to see some clouds forming. Time to head back.

Paradise Small Lake 5

Paradise Small Lake 6

I relaxed in my chair and did some reading. I was nibbling on peanuts and must have dropped one.

Paradise Squirrel 7

Check out his claws!

Paradise Squirrel 3

I actually felt those on my leg. I was wearing shorts for the second time on this whole trip. I thought he had gone away when all of a sudden he scampered up my leg, digging those little claws in. It kinda tickled.

Tuesday morning was cloudy and by the time I was heading out it had started to rain. Stopped at this place.

Mt. Rainier Sign

There are two big campgrounds in the park. Ohanapecosh is the largest at over 180 sites. It is on the eastern side of the mountain and I visited it in 2009. Cougar Rock is on the western slope and has over 170 sites. I checked it out.

Cougar Rock Sign

Open but almost empty. There were about 10 brave campers in the rain. Some of the sites were tiny and some big.

Cougar Rock_A021

That is one of the big ones. I could not take any pictures of the mountain because of the clouds, but here are two from the last time I was here.

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier 3

Here is the date when that photo was taken according to the file data: Tuesday, ‎August ‎18, ‎2009, ‏‎2:03:50 PM

Mt. Baker, Rainier, St. Helens, Hood, Bachelor, and Shasta are all classified as inactive volcanoes. St. Helens proved that wrong, and now officials are preparing in case another one erupts. Check out this sign in the Mt. Rainier area.

Volcano Sign

I’ve seen the movies. You cannot outrun lava.

I had one more stop before reaching my campground.

Kanaskat-Palmer Sign

Kanaskat-Palmer State Park is a 320-acre camping park on a small, low plateau in a natural forest setting. The park has two miles of shorelines on the Green River. Boat and raft launching is by hand only. River rafting and kayaking down the Green River Gorge is for expert-level enthusiasts only. Shoreline activities include nature appreciation, trout fishing and picnicking.

It started to rain really hard so I did not walk down to the river. The campsites were nice and big and about half had hookups.

Kanaskat-Palmer_003

I have about 50 miles to go to get to Monroe, WA where I am camping for 4 nights. It is pouring rain and I need to get some new wiper blades. They have worn out. I’ll finish with this little conundrum.

Maybe it is just me, but I find this sign very amusing.

Primitive Sign

I mean, isn’t THAT a warning sign?

Regards,

Greg

1 comment:

  1. Love the squirrel and the beautiful scenery. Thanks for sharing:)

    ReplyDelete