Truck packed, cooler filled with ice, beer and soda, Lord V, MiniWarrior and I headed North towards Castle Rock--then veered Eastward winding our way up to Yakima.
The scenery was gorgeous. Huge Ponderosa Pines with their red striped bark pressed up against looming mountain boulders.
We wound our way up for several hours then finally descended into the valley of Naches 30 miles west of Yakima.
We checked into our Hotel: The Whistling Jack Lodge. It was very quaint and had a cute window seat that over looked the Naches river below.
Once checked in, we headed out again to meet up with Lord V's family at their cabin.
We were weary from the long drive and spent the rest of the evening lazing around chatting with family while MiniWarrior trundled off to see what bugs Yakima had to offer for his collection.
The next day we all headed out to the Yakima with our trucks brimming with inflated rafts and inner tubes for our quest to ride the river.
We left a car at the end of our river ride and then drove 9 miles to our starting point. There were 9 of us total. 2 rafts and 5 inner tubes that we tied together with a long rope while we drifted down the river.
It took us over 2 hours to float the 9 mile trek. The weather was perfect and the water was freezing...there was much laughter and shrieking echoing off the Yakima canyon walls!
The next day a group of us headed up the road and hiked up to a waterfall. I don't remember the name of it--but it was a brutal uphill hike. Beautiful, but brutal on my plumpness.
Sunday (our final day) Lord V's sister, MiniWarrior and I headed out on another hike to a cave. Another brutal uphill hike--but the cave was cool. I could imagine what it was like in the old days when the explorers used such places for shelter. It was pitch black inside which made walking difficult as the tiny spears of light from our flashlights barely penetrated the inky darkness.
We repacked the truck and headed back home after our cave hike. We paused along the way to take some shots of Mt. Rainier with Chanda. See? :)
We stopped for dinner an hour from home and chomped on burgers at Lord V's favorite burger cafe, stretched our achy bones and caught up on voice mails and emails on our iPhones. I must admit, I felt a thrill of excitement to be connected to technology again! We had totally been cut off. No TV, no Cable, no Internet, no Cellphones...not even books. I had traveled to 3 different convenience stores by our Hotel searching for reading material as I had forgotten to pack a book...but nothing. No books, no magazines...nothing. When I asked the clerks if they had any reading material I could buy they blinked at me like frogs in the rain.
"Whayll, I gots a fishing manual" One offered helpfully.
...
So...yeah. We were very glad to be back in civilization!!
It was a beautiful place to visit and a very peaceful, relaxing end to our Summer vacation, though :)
More vacation images can be viewed at
http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com
