We left around 7 and headed down to Hwy 14, the scenic Lewis and Clark Highway that parallels the Columbia River and the northern edge of Oregon, for the first leg of our trip. We knew it was going to be warm at some point of our trip, we brought lots of water and food with us just because there weren't going to be a lot of places to stop. I kept in touch with Willmarth, who lives in Yakima. He said it was going to be 108° this afternoon. We were going to stop by and visit on our way through.
There were a lot of motorcycles and campers on Hwy 14. Some of them ended up pulling over so we could get by. I really didn't want to go 15-20 mph under the speed limit, especially since we had a strict schedule.
We got to Beacon Rock, found a parking place and used the facilities before finding the cache and checking out the area. I found the cache pretty quickly and then tried to find out where mom went. She had walked towards the river and down the dock to take pictures of the gorge and beacon rock. We both enjoyed the scenery and a few minutes later we were back in the car heading to the next one, Spring Creek Hatchery.
We stopped on the Washington side of the Bridge of the Gods so mom could see it and take a few pictures of it. We found out it would cost a dollar to cross it but we didn't have the time to explore that option.
It started getting warmer and warmer as we drove east. It was almost time to shed the sweatshirt. We got to the entrance and was overwhelmed with the amount of people using this area. I didn't think this place was that popular, boy, was I wrong. We found a parking spot near a van that had a ton of windsurfing gear hanging out the back end of it. This must be why all of these people were here. We got out and found the small trail that led to the rocky beach area. I read the hint because the coords were bouncy. I found the area pretty quickly. Meanwhile, mom enjoyed watching all of the windsurfers and taking pictures. It was really windy. I told her she better keep a hold of her hat or it would disappear. I brought the cache to the nearby ledge so we could sit and enjoy it. No one was paying any attention to us. I signed our names and stamped our passports without anything blowing away. I put it back and we took a few more pictures before walking back to the car.
Yep, I had to shed the sweatshirt, it was getting hot. At this point my phone said it was 92° and it was steadily climbing.
We drove by many small towns including Stevenson, Bingen, Lyle, Wishram, through several tunnels and past bunch of wineries. We finally reached the Maryhill area and got onto US 97, where we went down the hill to Maryhill State Park.
I've never been to this state park. When we arrived a truck was turned off and parked in the entrance not allowing others to drive into the park. I honked and no response. We weren't sure what he was doing but he should have parked his truck somewhere else instead of being in the way. I found a place to go around him and made our way towards the cache. At this point it was very hot so we hurried to find this one. We followed the trail (and I could see where rattle snakes could surprise you at this park) to the treed area and found the cache fast. I signed our names, stamped our passports and took the necessary picture. We walked back to the car and made our way to the stonehenge up the hill.
We went back up US 97 and back onto Hwy 14 and went east to the Maryhill Stonehenge. I've been here once before about a year ago when I came over for the first TriCities Coin Challenge. I saw it in the book Weird Washington and had to come here. This will probably be the closest I will get to the actual stonehenge in Europe. I stopped so mom could see it. We spent a good half our looking at the views and mom taking pictures.
We drove up US 97 towards Goldendale. Last time I was here we were trying to beat the clock so it was a quick drive by. This time I needed to stop to check Goldendale off of my cities and towns challenge. We followed Nuvi all the way to the front of the Chamber of Commerce. The cache was near a garden with rocks on top of it. I found it quickly. It was hot. I decided to go into the building to pick up a few brochures and booklets...the AC felt wonderful. I ended up talking to the lady that manned the desk for a while. She had heard of geocaching and in fact told me about their mini tour of town. It centered around the observatory, which is a mile up the hill, it is actually a state park. I wonder why they didn't choose that one? I told her I wasn't in town to do the tour but she gave me a button that said Goldendale Across the Galaxy Geocache Dash. I thanked her and went back out to the car, it was 103°. We saw the Dairy Queen when we entered town. Mom got a hot fudge sundae and I had one of their slushy drinks.
We drove north and made it to Brooks Memorial State Park, just in time to use their facilities. Once again, this series is wonderful when it comes to the call of nature. We got out and followed the hint. I was told this one was hard to find with the GPS just because the coords jumped around a lot. It kinda was. This is the only one that took us more than 5 minutes to find. I finally just walked back down to the beginning and made my way back up the hill behind the bathrooms. The hint was terrible, it was no where near a tree! I left our marks, stamped our passports and now the long hot haul to the Yakima Valley.
I have never driven this part of US 97 and have never entered Yakima from this end of Washington. There was not much of anything between Brooks Memorial and entering Toppenish. We did drive through part of the Yakima Indian Reservation and saw some wild horses. It seemed like it got hotter and hotter as we got more and more into the valley. I decided we should grab the cache before going over to Willmarth's house.
I let him know where we were. We got onto I-82 and drove west to Yakima Sportsman's State Park. When we got out I was already sweaty. It was 108°. You couldn't get away from it. We walked the short distance along a paved path to where the cache was suppose to be. I found it quickly. Mom took pictures. We walked over to the other section of the trail and found a fun story about an alligator that used to live in the park until it was captured in 2006. We got too hot so we walked back in the car and went up the hill to Willmarth's house.
Along the way he told me that he forgot that he had a doctor's appointment but we could hang out at the house until he was done. We arrived and the dogs went crazy. Shannon was actually wearing two shoes, she had ankle surgery in January, and it felt good to be in AC again. We sat on the couch and watched tennis as we chatted with Shannon. He got back about an hour later and we really needed some food. He, mom and I drove down to Major's where we had hamburgers, fries and drinks.
It was getting late so we said our goodbyes and off we went. We still needed four more parks along I-90. We hit the interchange and made it up the hill towards Ellensburg. I haven't been this way in quite some time. I think the last time I drove Canyon Road, which was summer of 2011.
We noticed a warning sign about I-90 westbound closing at 8 p.m for blasting. We really needed to hustle if we were going to get the rest of them and be past the closure before 8. Fingers crossed.
When we made it to Ellensburg and it was really windy. We followed Nuvi to Olmstead State Park, a park I have seen while I've driven past it on I-90 hundreds of times to and from WSU. The buildings and old farm equipment were pretty rustic. We were the only ones around. The temperature was much cooler compared to Yakima. The wind was pretty strong with it blowing through the small trees, but after being in 106 degree temperature, it was refreshing. We found the trail and made our way to the cache along the quick flowing river. Mom spotted the cache first. We stamped our passports, logged our names and put it back better than we found it. We briskly walked back to the car.
Along the Ellensburg Strip, the stretch of road with the restaurants and gas stations where we always stopped in college, we pulled over at the cheapest gas station and topped off our tank. Mom went inside and grabbed some more water and some candy because it sounded good and off we went. The thought of being stuck in the road closure really sucked. But deep down everything was going to work out because I was determined.
We got to Iron Horse-South Cle Elum and was able to park less than 350 feet from the cache site. We saw the trail head and walked down the graveled pathway. I saw the train car and knew where the cache would be. It took me a few seconds to locate where on the train it was but managed to do it fairly quickly since we had a time constraint. We took pictures and the necessary logging and stamping. It was a relief that it had cooled down since the hot temperatures from earlier that afternoon. We jumped back in the car and hustled to the next one.
We got back on I-90 and headed west towards Lake Easton State Park, one of Mc3cat's caches. We found where we needed to park and I had to change batteries in my GPS. Then we walked the .17 down the trail and to the fallen log to grab the cache, stamp and log. I put it back and we enjoyed our walk back with pictures since the sun was slowly setting on the horizon. It was about 7:30 so I knew we had plenty of time to miss the blasting closure.
I knew exactly where they were blasting and Iron Horse-Hyak was right after the area so I knew once we passed the area we were in the free and clear area. It was nice pulling up to the parking lot and not seeing over 500 people on their bikes. It was a soothing walk to the tunnel. As we got closer you could feel the cold air coming out of the tunnel. This was one of hydnsek's caches. I found where the cache was and had to use a stick to get it out of its hiding spot. I couldn't even wiggle my way on the other side of the tunnel door. Putting it back was easier. We took pictures of ourselves with the cache in front of the tunnel. You could see a haze coming out of the tunnel. It was pretty cool.
We grabbed the 9 state parks we had planned for the day and all before 8 p.m. It was about 12 hours of caching and most of those hours were driving. We continued home without stopping. We hit Hwy 18 to 167 and then to 512 and then Pacific Ave and then 507 towards home. I was exhausted and we made it home around 10. I took a shower and got ready for tomorrow for when we drive up towards Canada.
9 more state park caches and we have our silver coin!
Next Adventure: Northwestern Washington State, Canada-Peace Arch and Whidbey Island GeoTour
No comments:
Post a Comment