Volcanoes of Washington Challenge

Bike and Hike Four Spectacular Volcanic Mountains

This trip visits four spectacular volcanic mountains — Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams in Washington, and Mt. Hood in Oregon.  We experience great cycling through national parks and forests, as well as beautiful mountain hikes.  This trip is one of our Challenge Collection of tours and is designed for intermediate to advanced cyclists who want to take in some of the most dramatic natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest.  Due to permit restrictions within beautiful Mt. Rainier National Park, we can only take 10 guests on each of these tours.

Cycling Starts on Eastern Slope of Cascade Mountains

We start on Saturday morning with a complimentary ride in our van from Seattle over the Cascade Mountains.  We start cycling on the eastern slope of the Cascades, following country roads through the woods to Cle Elum, where we spend the night at the Iron Horse Inn, a bed and breakfast with an outdoor hot tub and rooms filled with railroad memorabilia.  The inn is adjacent to a major rails-to-trails bicycle path that crosses Washington and is near a former railroad station/roundhouse recently converted into a railroad museum.

Route Follows Yakima River Through Beautiful Winding Canyon

On Sunday we cycle out of the forested hills and down into the open cattle country near Ellensburg.  We ride beside the Yakima River as it exits the Cascades and cuts through a beautiful, winding canyon before depositing us into the apple orchards around Yakima.  We spend the night at the Birchfield Manor, a luxurious inn with award-winning meals.

Monday we follow the Naches River, gently ascending the wooded eastern slope of the Cascades.  We spend the night at Whistlin’ Jack Lodge in the Wenatchee National Forest, where we can watch the river from our room’s bay-view window or from the outdoor hot tub.

Climb to Paradise

Most of the cycling on Tuesday is within Mt. Rainier National Park.  We climb 30 miles to Chinook Pass and are rewarded with a 12-mile downhill through Cayuse Pass (yes, down to a pass) and along the Ohanapecosh River.  Then it’s back to climbing again — 24 miles on a spectacular road up the eastern flank of Mt. Rainier.  This is a challenging but very rewarding day, as we work our way up the mountain through virgin evergreen forests, past waterfalls from streams filled with snowmelt, and along a road with little traffic, as most vehicles approach the mountain from the west.

The views are nothing less than astonishing. “My first glimpse of the snow-covered, 14,410 footer off in the distance was while rounding a corner on a mountain pass,” described Boston Globe writer Diane Daniel after her Bicycle Adventures tour. “When I saw it I gasped, my eyes filled with tears, and I pulled over to swoon.” To read her entire article, click here.

Hike Alpine Trails to Panoramic View

We spend two nights at the newly reopened Paradise Lodge, a national park lodge located in the middle of the park (at 5,200 feet) on Mt. Rainier.  Paradise Lodge has been closed for the past two years for extensive remodeling; it’s been beautifully redone and we’re excited to be back.  On Wednesday, a layover day, we hike one of our favorite trails through meadows of wildflowers, beside sparkling streams, and up to an area with commanding views stretching for more than 100 miles.

Explore Blast Area of Mt. St. Helens

Thursday we cycle along a little-used country road beside a river toward Mt. St. Helens.  We approach the volcano from the northeast, cycling straight into the route that the exploding gases and ash took during the eruption of May 18, 1980.  At first the evergreen forest looks normal, but then we notice pebbles of white pumice on the forest floor.  Going further, we see that some trees have lost some branches.  Then standing dead trees appear, then trees that were knocked down by the blast.  They lie like spilled toothpicks on the hillside, their trunks all neatly pointing to the still smoldering crater. 

Devastation seems complete until we crest a ridge and view the ultimate — no trees.  Here the hot volcanic gases blasting at over 500 miles per hour not only knocked everything down, but literally blew it all away.  From a vista overlooking log-filled Spirit Lake, a park ranger tells us the incredible story of the explosion, the current buildup of a cinder cone in the volcano’s crater, the dramatic increase in volcanic activity since September 2004, the amazing reemergence of life in the 1980 blast zone, and the possibility of a future eruption.  Awesome! 

From Mt. St. Helens we van to the Columbia River and the elegant Skamania Lodge – a full service resort where we spend the night.

Climb Ends at Award-Winning Timberline Lodge

Friday’s ride is through the apple and pear orchards of the Hood River Valley.  Later we pass through thick forests of tall firs as we wind around Mt. Hood and finish the day with a climb to award-winning Timberline Lodge, where we spend the night.  Here we enjoy a superb meal in a spectacular setting and, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, the views are majestic.

Long Downhill Perfect Ending

On Saturday we enjoy a long downhill from Mt. Hood, followed by a beautiful ride on winding roads beside a river and through a wooded canyon that takes us to the outskirts of Portland.  Our remarkable journey concludes with a short shuttle to the Portland airport, airport hotels, and downtown Portland hotels.

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