St Helens and Mount Ranier. (National Parks in the USA)

Member Name: nickyturnill

Product:	National Parks in the USA
Date:	27/01/06 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: St Helens is shocking, Ranier is stunning.

Disadvantages: Bad weather can be a source of dissapointment.

I spent three weeks in Washington State in the Summer of 2002 during which time I stayed with a friend who lives in Pullman in central Washington. Washington State is situated in the Northern corner of the West coast of the USA and borders Britsh Columbia (Canada), Idaho and Oregon.

During my time there I visited the two biggest and most famous national parks in Washington State; Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens. In this review I am going to describe my experiences of both, hopefully to entice you over to that side of the world.

***Mount Rainier***

Mount Rainier National Park was established on March 2, 1899, and covers 235,625 acres upto 14,410' above sea level. Mount Rainier itself is a snow topped active volcano, surrounded by forest and stunning green meadows of wild flowers. It is a truly beautiful and picturesque park and every year some 2 million people enter the National Park and drive up twisty mountain roads to gape at the stunning views.....
I can tell you this because I have seen the pictures...... Yes I've been to the park I undertook the long drive, I even wore shorts that day, after all it was August in America......
Well, it was freezing and it was so foggy that we couldn't see the bl***y mountain. I have a picture of us all stood in front of it (apparently) at the most famous of the viewpoints. Me with my blue legs shivering and just wanting to get back in the car, gutted that we couldn't see the mountain....
But there you are... this is seemingly a common problem in Mount Ranier National Park regardless of the time of year..... it was still a good day out and of course you could still see the bits of the park that are in the immediate vicinity and it is beautiful to say the least. So clean and pure looking. We just went for the day but you could easily spend much longer here walking and enjoying the scenery if you have the weather on your side.
However I was lucky enough to see the mountain indirectly!! Firstly from an internal flight I took back to Seattle over the National Park. The Mountain was clerly visible from the plane which was a spectular site and I have some amazing phots of it. On a clear day, like we had Mt Rainier can also be seen in the distance from Seattle which is also an amazing site and these experiences did kind of make up for the inital dissappointment somewhat.

***Mount St Helens****

The weather on the day we visited Mount St Helens National Park was much more suitable and to be honest my experiences in this park are much more vivid.
The park stands in stark and bleak contrast to the lush and fertile grounds that surround Mount Ranier......
On May 18, 1980, the long-dormant Mount St. Helens erupted following an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale. The north face of the mountain collapsed and within moments, this slab of rock and ice slammed into Spirit Lake, crossed a ridge 1,300 feet high, and roared 14 miles down the Toutle River. The eruption lasted nine hours and nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead. This destruction is all too visible still today and recovery will take decades longer. The park certainly will not recover in our lifetimes.
The whole site is desolate and bleak but in addition it truely is amazing...... hardly anything grows there anymore, there are few trees just the remaining trunks of those which survived the blast all bending over away from St Helens itself. It is spooky and feels unreal. There is an information point shows photos of the area before the blast including shots of the mountain which is a totally different shape and much smaller height wise than it was originally.
St Helens is a spectacular and shocking site, one of the most amazing I have ever been lucky enough to come across. It sums up the extreme power of nature more than anything else I'd seen to that date..... Volcanic activity is still frequently recorded in the park and is sometimes closed for fear of another eruption.
On the whole as there honestly isn't much left of St Helens then it is really only suited for a day trip but really it is well worth the drive to see this spectacular sight!

Ranier has also the usual features that come with National parks, the possibity to camp, picnic facilities, bins, toilets and the odd restaurant and visitors centre here and there. Such facilities are obviously alot more sparse in St Helens. A small fee is charged to enter both parks, per car, in order to maintain the parks and pay for the wardens. If you arrive by foot or on a bike there is no charge. The roads are generally good in both parks, although in the Summer Ranier can get very busy on good days and on small,, windy roads the traffic is bound to be an issue somewhat.

Washington state is also home to The Olympic National Park, part of which is coastal, is also suppossed to be lovely and well worth a visit but sadly we didn't have the time.....

In summary, the National Parks of Mount Ranier and Mount St Helens Washington State are both worth while places to see, presenting a striking contrast. Washington State is a lovely part of the world and I definitely recommend a visit.

Thanks for reading. Nicky

Summary: These two national parks certainly stand in contrast to each other but both are well worth a visit.