A trip to Paradise - and beyond

The day dawned cold but sunny, with some clouds about as we prepared to ride east and then south to Mt Ranier.

After clearing the suburbs of Seattle, our first stop was the Snoqualmie Falls. These have a large volume of water passing over a 270 foot drop and make an impressive sight. The mist from below blows up over the viewing platform like fine rain.

The roads south to the pretty town of Enumclaw went through a lot of newly developed areas, with huge housing developments where every house looked the same. We stopped at Enumclaw for an early lunch in the park adjacent to the library, where there was a huge bronze sculpture of two bullocks dragging a log.

Leaving Enumclaw, the GPS got us onto route 410 as desired, but heading west, not east. It was not until we got about 20 miles down the road I realised we had been led up the garden path (so to speak). We had to back track all the way to Enumclaw and continue east on 410.

The road quickly left civilization behind and we found ourselves enjoying the sunshine on a scenic road through intensely green forests. After 42 miles we came to the junction of highway 12 which meant we had overshot the turn we wanted to make onto route 706. The GPS could not accept we should take this road and for miles kept insisting we make a U turn.

It was just as well we didn't, for this road leads through the Mt Ranier National Park, and is as scenic a road as we have found so far on our journey. The road was a little rough in places but was great riding. It took us high up onto the flank of Mt Ranier, well above the snow line, where we rode through a winter wonderland. In spite of all the snow about the road, the road itself was not icy or wet (except where the waterfalls cascaded onto the road).

The 35 miles to Elbe took ages to ride because we kept stopping at all the amazing sights and views to take photos and "Ooh" and "Ah!" at the splendour. Box canyon was impressive, being probably no more than 10 ft wide at any point, and with a strong flow of water rushing through it - 180 feet below.

Eventually we realised we had to get some miles under our wheels, so we slipped past the resort of Paradise on our journey west.

Once we exited the National Park the road opened out and we started making good time, quickly reaching Ashford where we stopped for a warming coffee. At Elbe, a few more miles on, we turned south to Morton on a fast open road. There we picked up Highway 12 east to take us to Packwood, our destination for the night.

After enjoying a dry, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy day, the weather turned bad about 6 miles before Packwood, and we arrived there in drizzling rain. It was a long day (especially with getting lost) and it was after 6 pm when we arrived after 277 miles - our longest ride on any one day so far.