Escaping the heat at Mount Rainier



As the drought in the west drags on, we decided to take the van and bikes out to Pierce County and finally check out Mt. Rainier.



We parked the van in a tree farm, which made for a great base camp. The small town of Morton was nearby, allowing us to easily get food and gas, and giving us numerous routes to check out the area. We woke the first morning to a surprising amount of rain, so we decided to take the van to Lewis & Clark State Park. We had the park to ourselves and had a great time hiking through the old growth forest.






























 


The next day the sun came out, so we loaded up the bikes with the intention of riding around Mount St. Helens. We rode out to Riffe Lake with the plan to take some back roads from Randle, but the road was unfortunately closed due to extreme fire danger. We still had a great time exploring the roads winding through the forests, and luckily avoided seeing any smoke (and only a few meth heads).





















 

The following day was the hottest yet, so we jumped on our bikes and headed to Mount Rainier. It was a sunny day and Zero loved leaning into all the curves as we rode up the mountain.



 




 




 







We had a wonderful time at Mount Rainier, and highly recommend visiting. For best results, definitely go during the week and early in the morning, as traffic and bad drivers increased later in the day.