"Top" Hops and Monstrous Volcanoes

On Sunday we made our way toward our next stop in Yakima, Washington. It was only an hour drive so we decided to take the scenic route and look for something to do or see along the way. As it turns out, central Washington in responsible for growing about 75% of the Hops in the world. The center of this area is Topanish. Staying off of the highway we headed in that direction and soon started encountering almost nothing but fields full of growing hops. Well Topanish is famous for 2 things. The worlds only Hops Museum and a town full of Murals. Every year the town gets together and paints another mural on the side of a building in town. There are dozens of them. The interesting thing is that most have something to do with the business in the building. The Pawn Shop had Native Americans and Traders, The Police Station a Court House Setting and the Hops Museum, Hop fields being picked. They are very detailed and fun to look at. We spent a considerable amount of time in town both at the museum and walking around looking at murals.

After our stop over we headed into Yakima, stopped at the Visitor Center and headed to our campground for the next 4 nights. It is a Washington state park right on the Yakima River. We had to wait a few minutes for them to finish watering but finally allowed to go back into our site. The only problem that we had was the full on Rain Bird shot Scott got in the face because the window of the truck was down. I tried not to laugh, really I did.! I was not successful.

Yesterday we headed to Mount Rainier for our much anticipated visit there. It did not disappoint. It was going to be hot in the Yakima Valley so we thought it would be a good day to spend in the Mountains, once again a good decision. The sky was clear and the air a crisp 58 degrees. The scenery was really breathtaking and many a Wow!! Moment with ample view points to pull over in. There were a couple of waterfalls that were on my must see list so we headed that way first. Let’s just say that this mountain is massive and nothing is really close together but there was beauty around every corner with wildflowers blooming and patches of snow.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking but Christine Falls was one of my favorite stops ever. It is just really beautiful with a stone bridge in the foreground. Narada Falls was also beautiful but difficult to photograph because of wind and spray. By the time we headed up to Paradise to the Visitor Center the weather had changed. Clouds and mist started coming in rapidly. We had heard the Mount Rainier made its own weather but apparently we were going to experience it firsthand. By this time the temperature had warmed up to the mid-sixties so it was a bit of a shock to get out of the truck at the Visitor Center to clouds, wind, rain drops and 49 degrees. There was a very interesting video about the Volcano and the affect on the surrounding area which was very apparent with the glacial rivers and streams, lakes and canyons. We enjoyed our drive down stopping for lunch at a lower elevation but still with a spectacular view. I have more pictures

with our beautiful Ford Truck parked in amazing locations. It was a long day but well worth the trip.
Today we are taking it easy. Windshield repair early in the morning. Scott is going to play golf while I blog and process photos. Later I’ll head to the Yakima Visitor center to use their WiFi to upload everything. After I pick Scott up from golf it is off to the Bale Breaker Brewing Company for Taco Tuesday. We are having a really great time and enjoying meeting people along the way. Ran into a couple from Fresno yesterday. It’s a great big small world. Love to everyone, until next time.