Paradise, Silver Creek WA - 9/21/09--9/28/09

Another new park--at least one we haven't been to before. This one is in Washington and is just east of Chehelis. This is the first Thousand Trails Park (aka Leisure Time) that we have been to in Washington.
Leisure Time Parks are all part of the Thousand Trail Park system. Our plan includes Thousand Trail, NACO, and Leisure Time parks. We have over fifteen in Washington and we need to take a summer and go see more of them. They are pretty much summertime parks.

Paradise Park has a lot of trees, but no undergrowth. This is the road leading down into it. They have quite a few rentals. Here is a row of trailers. They also have several of the little cabins.

A lot of our parks are trying to sell some of the trailers. You buy it for a couple of thousand and then lease the site on a 2-3 year contract. You get to stay in it 180 days a year. Or you can let friends and family stay in it some of those days. It would be a pretty good deal if you were tired of traveling around so much.

We had a really good spot at the bottom of a row of sites, right in front of the little cabins. No one parked in front of us because it was kind of a hard one to get out of once you pulled in, so we had lots of room the week we were there. This is Terry standing in front of the Condo.

The little cabins are nice inside. These were pretty small. They have a set of bunkbeds (a double on the bottom and a twin on the top) in the living area, with a little couch and a TV. In the back there is a little kitchenette and a bathroom.

The facilities were really nice. There were two large pools and this "fancy" hot tub. We used the pool and the hot tub a couple of times.

There was quite a bit of open space, which is nice when the park is busy. It was pretty empty when we were there. In fact, the next week they were closing down for the winter to get some big remodeling done. They are going to cut some trees to make larger RV sites and move some sewer and water lines. People can't be camped there when they do that kind of work.

We woke up one morning with some visitors outside. Terry was able to sneak up on them long enough to get some pictures.

The park is close enough to take a day-trip to the volcanic mountain of Mt. St. Helens. What a site that was! This was our first good look at it.

Bob and Lolita went with us and we stopped at the first visitor's center, which was one of three as we got closer to Mt. St. Helens.

This picture was taken from that first visitor's center. When the mountain erupted, most of the run-off came down this canyon, with 17 miles high of ash spewed in the air. It just covered everything in it's way. Now there is a river that runs through it, but not much vegetation has grown back.

This is the closest visitors' center. It is about five miles from the mountain. There were some great displays, movies, and Ranger talks here. The Ranger showed us this rock and said that it was liquid when it came out of the volcano. It has a flat side where it landed and as it cooled, the rock split in sections. There are still pockets of gas inside and that is why it is so light and I am able to lift it.

This is the north side of the mountain that exploded. It is now 1,000 feet shorter than it was before it erupted, and it is building a new lava dome inside. There is still steam rising from it because it is so hot. Sometimes, it even turns red. They figure it will erupt again, but who knows when! The first time it erupted, it took only 45 seconds for the flow to reach the area I was standing, which is about five miles away!

This is a "zoomed-in" picture of the very top of Mt. St. Helens. It shows the lava dome being formed and you can see the steam rising.

This is Spirit Lake which is at the base of Mt. St. Helens. It was totally filled in during the eruption of the volcano, but the water eventually came back and the bottom of the lake is now 30 feet higher than it was. There was one man who had a boating business and he refused to leave Spirit Lake. He is now buried under all of the lava flow. I think about 16 people in all were killed during the eruption.

We encountered some friendly critters that have come back to the mountain. They say that the little creatures and wild animals have helped the area come back to life because of the way they burrow into the grown and the way they help to scatter seeds.

I had to make a run back to the parking lot for something and there was a van parked there. I heard some "wolf whistles" and although I knew they must be for me, I thought there were some kids in the van who were just being smart. When we all went back to the parking lot, here was a man at the van with this parrot sitting on his arm. We stopped to visit with both of them. I still think the parrot has good taste when he whistled at me!

On our way to Church on Sunday, we passed this flower farm. The flowers were just beautiful!

We even got visitors while we were at Paradise. Our friends Jim and Sue who we connect up with ever so often, and their grandson, came to visit for the afternoon. Sue had just gotten back from a cruise to Alaska with her sisters and Jim was just getting over knee surgery. It is always good to see them.

One of our favorite pastimes is playing pinochle. We all fit around our table pretty well because it has a little pull-out on it.

I think the girls beat the boys pretty badly this time (if my memory serves me correctly--Terry may disagree but I am the one telling the story!).

We had a great time in our first Washington park and look forward to seeming more of them. We are headed back towards home, with Bob and Lolita going straight there, Ron and Alice going to up north for a few days to see friends, and us stopping along the was for a few days to visit my brother Ron and his family. Happy trails to everyone.