First off, can I say how much I hate that blogger loads the pictures backwards? I really do. We started out Monday afternoon. We knew it would be crowded trying to camp on Labor day, but we found that it had POURED rain on the Cascades on the weekend, so we were delighted to camp during the week, have few neighbors (none, actually) and clear blue skies with lots of stars. We headed over towards Mt. Rainier. We camp up on top of Fifes Ridge the first night. At 6000 feet, it was freaking COLD! Sarah was crabby, but Katie was a complete angel. Both girls helped daddy gather firewood as I cooked shrimp alfredo in the dark because of the late start we got and Johns excessive "exploring". [Can we just get out of the car already? I don't care where we camp].
After we froze our tooshies off and were attacked by wasps, we packed up and moved again. We went through the park and it was so beautiful. We stopped here at the Naches Loop hiking trail. It had great views of the mountain, and a harvest of blueberries. The girls pretended to be bears while we picked berries and ate them on the trail. Shawn was as happy as could be strapped to daddy's back.
I was feeling a touch of guilt because we were letting Sarah skip school (wow, a whopping 2.5 hours) until we headed south to Ohanapecosh. This place was beautiful! The visitors' center is so lovely and there is so much to be learned there about animals, rocks and trees. Many science lessons could be had there. It made me want to pack up in an RV for a year and just GO. Homeschool the kids and play as we learn. Wouldn't that be awesome? We hiked there to the hot springs and then had a picnic lunch back at the main camp.
We hiked some more at Clear Creek Falls. I was scared I'd be sore.
We camped the second night at Clear Lake. I've decided that no matter where we go, we will be infested with wasps. We kept the kids busy while setting up camp by putting a fishing pole in grouchy Sarah's little hands and sitting her on the edge of the lake, giving Katie a rubber mallet so she can play lumberjack, and utilizing the baby jail to it's utmost capabilities. I wish I had taken the time to get a picture of Sarah fishing, because even when she is being a brat, she is still beautiful and it would have been a great shot.
The thing that freaked the girls out the most about this campsite was that there were free range cows. Liek they don't see cows ever week at Granpa's. As there was no grass in our campsite, only next to it, the cows left us alone. Cattle crisis averted. I'm not sure how exactly the owners of these cattle were to go about rounding them up in a few weeks. There were no fences, no cattle gaurds, nothing. I even saw cows hanging out on the dried up bed of Rimrock Lake. There was nothing to stop them from coming right up onto the road. Being married into a family of cattle ranchers, this was all beyond what I could grasp. There was nothing to keep these cows out of the middle of the roads. There was a cattle guard before we hit highway 12, though.
First off, can I say how much I hate that blogger loads the pictures backwards? I really do. We started out Monday afternoon. We knew it would be crowded trying to camp on Labor day, but we found that it had POURED rain on the Cascades on the weekend, so we were delighted to camp during the week, have few neighbors (none, actually) and clear blue skies with lots of stars. We headed over towards Mt. Rainier. We camp up on top of Fifes Ridge the first night. At 6000 feet, it was freaking COLD! Sarah was crabby, but Katie was a complete angel. Both girls helped daddy gather firewood as I cooked shrimp alfredo in the dark because of the late start we got and Johns excessive "exploring". [Can we just get out of the car already? I don't care where we camp].
After we froze our tooshies off and were attacked by wasps, we packed up and moved again. We went through the park and it was so beautiful. We stopped here at the Naches Loop hiking trail. It had great views of the mountain, and a harvest of blueberries. The girls pretended to be bears while we picked berries and ate them on the trail. Shawn was as happy as could be strapped to daddy's back.
I was feeling a touch of guilt because we were letting Sarah skip school (wow, a whopping 2.5 hours) until we headed south to Ohanapecosh. This place was beautiful! The visitors' center is so lovely and there is so much to be learned there about animals, rocks and trees. Many science lessons could be had there. It made me want to pack up in an RV for a year and just GO. Homeschool the kids and play as we learn. Wouldn't that be awesome? We hiked there to the hot springs and then had a picnic lunch back at the main camp.
We hiked some more at Clear Creek Falls. I was scared I'd be sore.
We camped the second night at Clear Lake. I've decided that no matter where we go, we will be infested with wasps. We kept the kids busy while setting up camp by putting a fishing pole in grouchy Sarah's little hands and sitting her on the edge of the lake, giving Katie a rubber mallet so she can play lumberjack, and utilizing the baby jail to it's utmost capabilities. I wish I had taken the time to get a picture of Sarah fishing, because even when she is being a brat, she is still beautiful and it would have been a great shot.
The thing that freaked the girls out the most about this campsite was that there were free range cows. Liek they don't see cows ever week at Granpa's. As there was no grass in our campsite, only next to it, the cows left us alone. Cattle crisis averted. I'm not sure how exactly the owners of these cattle were to go about rounding them up in a few weeks. There were no fences, no cattle gaurds, nothing. I even saw cows hanging out on the dried up bed of Rimrock Lake. There was nothing to stop them from coming right up onto the road. Being married into a family of cattle ranchers, this was all beyond what I could grasp. There was nothing to keep these cows out of the middle of the roads. There was a cattle guard before we hit highway 12, though.
If you load the pictures into the system from the last picture to the first one, that makes it so you don't have to rearrange on the page. It wasn't like this a year ago, but I guess they updated and made it more annoying.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fun camping spot, minus the cows. Weren't you worried they'd step on your tent or something? Or do you have an RV? Anyway, cute pictures.
I did end up loading them backwards. The campsite is across the lake from Camp Zarahemla. We checked the site for cowpies before setting up the tent. We know the cows probably wouldn't be back, and even if they did, there was no reason for them to come right into our camp. They ate their dinner nearby while we set up and then we didn't see them again until we left.
ReplyDelete