National Park-to-Park Highway Tour 2010: Day 27

Sun was out this morning, but it's a little nippy and in the 50's. We did hear on the morning weather that Seattle normally sees 70's by April. So far this year, they haven't seen the 70's yet! Off to see if the mountain is out! We also learned we're a long way from home:

There are a good number of people in the park today....all hoping for that magical view of the mountain. We ran across a group of young women who were traveling the US with SunTrek. These ladies were from Poland, New Zealand, and Russia. They took a photo of our car tag!

We continued on up to Paradise. The mountain was coming out!

It was beautiful! We went into the Visitor Center to watch the movie we couldn't see yesterday because of the power outage. The movie was great, too. To prove it's a small world, the couple sitting next to us were also from Trussville! Scary! LOL

Going back down the mountain to what we thought was the way we were going back to Graham, we stopped for an "animal jam." Turns out it was a fox/coyote/other with her babies!

There are two babies here, but we saw one or two more. They were jumping all over her and around the trees! So cute! No, I didn't get out of the truck to take the pictures. Shot from inside the truck!

On the way up to Paradise, we noticed a paved road going off to the right. There was no signage, but on the way back down, we took that road. It turned down the mountain and went off to the other side of the National Park. Great ride! We passed frozen Reflection Lake.

We stopped several times just to take in all the sites. It's so big, you can't do it justice in a photo!

There is light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train!

Add volcano sign

And then we entered the woods. Dark, thick, beautiful and I know Hansel and Gretel are in there somewhere! David suggested Sasquatch would jump out at any minute. He didn't, but an elk did. Gorgeous!

There was a creek on the right side for a long time. We saw several trees that crossed the creek completely. Decided they were bear paths so they didn't get their feet wet!

We also crossed Laughingwater Creek. David mentioned the name and then was quiet. Then all of a sudden he burst out laughing really loud. I look at him and he said "Laughingwater Creek." We've been in the truck tooooo long.

This road led us back to the entrance of the park we entered this morning. It was way past lunchtime and we had not had lunch, so we decided to stop in Elbe and grab something to eat. But wait, the church is open! We've seen this tiny church before, but it had never been open when we've been there.

The church is so beautiful. You cross the railroad tracks and train cars to reach it. It's an old RR town and the bell in the tower is a train bell! The ladies who volunteer to open the church rang it for us. They were getting ready to close when we got there, but stayed until we had a chance to visit the church. It's still used for services and weddings! These ladies drive from Tacoma to volunteer here.

We stopped in Eatonville for lunch/dinner as it was getting late and we didn't have lunch. We saw a restaurant yesterday when stopped for a school crossing guard, so there we went for lunch. Great lunch and a waitress from Atlanta.

Out of the window we could see a guy with a Peace flag and a sign that read "Peace Works." I asked our waitress about him. Seems he's out there every weekend - rain or shine. She knows he's been there the last year and may have been there before that time. She moved to Eatonville last year.

Here's out Adult RV Park Sign.

Here's the no photos sign.

Now what we found out! Adult RV Park refers to the fact they don't allow children! The no photo sign refers to nuts like me who go out shooting pictures when the mountain is "out." They have a great view, but people turn in to get a better photo. Glad to find out we weren't in a "clothing optional" park. It was way tooo cold for that!

After a long day of travel and catching up on email, etc., I looked out the window of the Airstream and was rewarded with this view. Grabbed the telephoto for the last two.