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| Below the clouds in Mt. Rainer NP |
If you time it right, New England has its beautiful red autumns and Colorado has its golden
aspens. And with good timing, Oregon and
Washington can be a fall color delight of red, orange, yellow and coniferous greens. We lucked out this year with a September Central
Oregon Airstream rally and an October Washington State road trip.  |
| View of Mt. Jefferson from the 8-mile perimeter loop |
Smith Rocks
State Park in Central Oregon never disappoints.
The rocks change color by the hour, season, and hiking
route. We camped nearby at Cove Palisades
State Park in late September with fellow Airstreamers over a long weekend. Daughter Feruza from New York scored a dirt-cheap
ticket and joined us. It was so nice to hang
with her and see Airstream friends we haven’t seen in over a year.
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| Smith Rocks and Crooked River |
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| Cycling the Rim Overlook above Lake Billy Chinook |
We love to
travel in the autumn, and this year was no different. Home from the UK for just a month, we got antsy
for a road trip and decided on some new and familiar places in Washington
State. (Thanks, Tim and Pam for the
inspiration!). So, without an itinerary we
headed north and took it day by day. The weather was cool and sometimes rainy,
but the colors were near perfect--especially when we couldn't safely pull over to take a photo of them.
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| In retrospect, we stayed farther west than on past trips |
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Glamping in Morton's city park,
a good base camp to explore Mt. Rainer. |
The new part of
this trip was the White Pass after Mt. Rainier NP, the Yakima River Gorge,
Leavenworth, and the Olympic coast. We
skipped Lake Chelan and Bonneville Dam because we have been there, but I highly
encourage reading our 2014 posts about them, as they are truly worth a visit. (Lake Chelan) (Bonneville Dam)
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Close your eyes and imagine you're seeing
Mt. Rainer in the 35 degree fog |
We found Leavenworth to be too touristy for
our taste, but we loved hiking the Icicle River Gorge and the surrounding
countryside.
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| The road to the Icicle Gorge trailhead |
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| Pearrygin Lake State Park |
North Cascades
National Park was beautiful, but as with our last trip, the weather wasn’t. Thus, no extra nights or hikes as we had
hoped. But we had a nice night camping near
the Skagit River in the Sedro-Wooley city park with hookups and a good cell
connection to stream shows we missed.
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Climbing to the 5400' Washington Pass
in North Cascades NP |
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| To the sunset, just before the storm |
Other than a memorable
2005 backpack trip with my brother and nephew on the Olympic Coast, we hadn’t
been to the Olympic Peninsula in over two decades. We couldn’t believe the sprawl from Sequim to
Port Angeles. Or the many speeding log
trucks. That said, it was beautiful in
the rain as Hwy 101 took us out of Port Angeles toward the coast winding through
Indian reservations and Olympic National Park. We enjoyed a cozy night as a coastal storm battered
the trailer.
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| The Columbia, looking west. |
This year marks
our 10th year of owning an Airstream. So, as we headed toward home, we
thought it was only appropriate to camp in Skamokawa County Park on the
Columbia River, the site of our first Airstream Rally. It was the last place Lewis Clark camped in
1805 before sighting the Pacific Ocean.
Compared to last summer, camping is now sociable again with friendly neighbors.
As with all
trips for us, it’s good to go and very good to be back home again. You can see more photos of these trips on my Facebook page. We wish you a colorful autumn as Thanksgiving approaches.
“What We Can, While We Can!”
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| Afternoon view from our deck |
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| Morning double rainbow surprise |
