A Summer of Wander: Where in the Sam Hill is Goldendale?

July 25, 2012

It is going to be a hot one here in Maryhill today...we're up early, but the sun is making it clear that it is going to cross the comfort line into hot-as-hell...so we break camp and get on the road. Today we are headed to Mount Rainier, one of our very favorite places to spend time. We head north out of Maryhill and just over the hill we are greeted by spectacular vistas...wheat fields, farm houses, dry hills and snow capped mountains...

One thing we have learned over the last three months of traveling is to stop when you see something spectacular, so we pull off at a roadside marker to read about what we're looking at and to take these photos.

We are just a mile or two from Goldendale, Washington, as you can see on the map, and we learn that the mountain we're looking at is Mount Adams.

In the last few miles we have seen signs promoting a tour loop of historical homes in Goldendale...so we decide to take a little tangent trip into Goldendale to see what it's all about.

At first, there is a sign or two pointing the way to the historic homes driving tour, but then the trail goes cold. We drive around a little bit looking for another sign, and while we don't find a sign, exactly, we do find something historic...the Presby Museum. Located in a majestic old home, the museum is run by the Klickitat Historical Society. The house itself was built in 1902 by lawyer Winthrop Presby, who helped to draft the Washington state constitution. The sign out front is readied to be repainted...

This is the pride and joy of the Museum and of Goldendale (according to the Chamber of Commerce staff we would meet in about five minutes)...it is a 1900 Russel steak engine tractor...

Not having found any more info about the historic homes loop, Patty is furiously googling while Michael is taking photos of the Presby Museum. We learn that the Chamber of Commerce had the printed guide for the tour, so we drive down the road about five minutes and chat with the Chamber staff and get a guide.

Now we're on track...but since we already drove through town we will do the loop backwards...here we go!

The first house is the Collins House, built in 1910. It was the home, office and makeshift hospital for its first resident Dr. F.H. Collins. The house was built by a prolific contractor named Almond Baker.

This house was also built by Almond Baker...this one is called the Norris house and was built in 1912...

This house is pretty old...built on 1885...called the Dingle House...

This is the Beckett House, built by J.A. Beckett in 1894 with lumber from his own mill...

This house is clearly different...not only in style but also in material...it's made out of brick. It was built by Nelson Brooks who owned Brooks Bricks in Goldendale in the 1920's. Here's an interesting little factoid (especially since we toured the Maryhill Museum yesterday...) Nelson Brooks gave the welcoming address for Queen Marie of Romania at the opening of Maryhill Museum in 1926...! Small world...

And right across the street is another brick house...this one is called the Rosa Brooks House. Rosa was the wife of Nelson Brooks, and after Nelson died she had this house built across the street and moved in...her son and his family moved into the original Brooks brick home...

This is the Bonebrake House, built in 1889. The original owner was a doctor...yup, Dr. Bonebrake...seriously. He is known for being the physician who performed the first appendectomy in Klickitat County...on the kitchen table (actually, on a patient who was laying on the kitchen table...)...

This house is certainly the most ornate of the homes we have seen...it is the Abeling House built in 1880, and inside is a staircase made in Eurpoe and shipped around Cape Horn to get it to Goldendale...must be some staircase!

This is the Klickitat County Courthouse...not the original (which burned down), and not even the replacement...this is the third courthouse built on this site. This one is stone and was built in the early 1940's...

This is a truly historic building...it is a Carnegie Library built in 1912. Back in the 1880's, Andrew Carnegie began giving money away to fund the construction of libraries across the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. This library in Goldendale is one of those libraries...is has been added on to since 1912 but this section is the original building...

This home was built as a residence and office for Dr. Collins...the same guy mentioned in the description of the first house on our tour...this was built four years later...In 1930's and 1940's this was used as Goldendale's General Hospital...

This is called the Golden House...not because of the color but because the family of John Golden (who founded Goldendale) lived here after it was built around 1897...

This is the Erland House, built in 1903...the light pole in front is one of only five remaining original Goldendale light poles...

This is the Wilkins House, built in the 1890's, and at one time it served as a boarding house for loggers...

Now, this is our favorite...it is called the Red House...hmmmm, wonder how they came up with that? Apparently it has always been painted red since it was built in 1891 by Charles Newell. Interesting guy...Newell was the world's largest horse dealer (nicknamed the "Horse King") in the late 1800's, supplying armies in the U.S. and in Europe...

OK, time to get back on the road to Mount Rainier...so we say goodbye to Goldendale and "No, thank YOU!"

On our drive to Rainier we planned on stopping for lunch and this place was our first choice...we read about it online and decided to check it out. This is the St. John's Monastery, a Greek Orthodox nunnery located in the middle of nowhere outside of Goldendale, and they are well known for their baklava and gyros. So we pull off the road and have lunch...

This is the sign for the monastery, and while we wait for our lunch we see alot of women dressed in black from head to toe walking from building to building...

It's a nice afternoon so we select a table outside for our lunch...

As we return to our Roadtrek, we notice something unusual...look above the top of the RV, see that mailbox? Hmmmm, the local postman must be really tall, or maybe that's just for air mail...

Our drive to Rainier is uneventful with the exception of the blasting being done to the rock walls along the road...it delays us about 15 minutes...but not too bad...

As we get closer we get glimpses of that great mountain...thar she blows!

And we know we're close because we are driving through forests of huge trees...

We've arrived! We will be camping at the Ohanapecosh campground on the southeast corner of the park. It is a series of camping site loops tucked into a first growth forest...

As we arrive at the campground we see the visitors center and decide to take a look and get some hiking suggestions (there still alot of trails covered in snow due to the very snowy winter here)...The visitors center has a great model of Mount Rainier with campgrounds, trails and roads marked...we're right here, in the bottom right corner...!

The Visitors Center provides background on the history of the Ohanapecosh campground...there are hot springs here that were an attraction for tourists and those seeking treatment of their rheumatic conditions...

The campground road takes us from the visitors center into the campground...straight ahead is the bridge that crosses the Ohanapecosh River...but we're in the C Loop so we take a left...

The river is rushing as snow melts higher up on the mountain...

Here's a photo that gives a sense of what it feels like to drive into the campground loop under these majestic towering trees...

...and we arrive in our camp site...our favorite...private, and nestled along the river...

Here's the view from our campsite...and the sound of the rushing waters of the Ohanapecosh are so relaxing...

...so we relax a bit...we've been on the move for months, it seems, and this is our final destination, so we savor it as the warm sunshine finds its way through the trees to our site...

After cocktails and dinner, it is time to get the campfire going...once the sun goes down behind the hills across the river it gets much darker and cooler pretty quickly.

And what good is a campfire without fixing some s'mores! We have our setup down...graham crackers, really good chocolate, gourmet marshmallows with coconut...and of course we have the marshmallow roasting professionals' tool of choice...the Rollo Roasters! (Those of you who have read our earlier posts know about our Rollo Roasters and our friend Donna who gave them to us...thanks again Donna!)