Yesterday I passed through the Columbia Plateau/Channeled Scablands area, then headed south to come back north through Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park. Along the way I stopped at Gingko Petrified Forest State Park, but the Information Center was closed on Tue.-Wed. due to budget constraints, but I did get some photos of some very nice specimens of petrified wood. You can see growth rings in some of them.

Rt. 12 from Yakima to Mt Rainier was spectacular along Clear Creek and i ran into some bicyclists who were kind enough to take my photo at the falls.

Mt. Rainier was kind of disappointing because the mountain was mostly wrapped in clouds and hard to photograph. after leaving the park I headed to Oorting to see the town direclty in the path of a lahar that froms as a result of the next eruption of Mt. Rainier.

Later I met up with Jim and spent the night at his home with his family.