In September 2011, I had just quit
my job and still had a little time before
starting my new one, we rode our motorcycles for
one week up to Seattle. On the
Interstates it takes only about 4 hours to
Seattle, but we rode the bikes north along the
coast. Then south again along the volcanoes,
past Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, Mount
Adams and Mount Hood.
Seattle with the "Space
Needle" is a really interesting City. It
has lots of cafes and of course plenty of
Starbucks, as they have their headquarter in
Seattle. Some streets of the city are nearly
as steep as in San Francisco and therefore I
can not recommend it for new riders.
Mount Saint Helens, and
especially the still visible damages of the
eruption of 1982 are absolutely stunning and
definitely worth a visit. In addition the road
99 to Spirit Lake is a really nice road with
lots and lots of turns!
The Ape Cave is a old lava
tube that can be visited as a self guided tour.
The tunnel is about 1.6 km / 1 mile long, but
has only one entrance and exit. This means that
one has to walk back the same way.
Good shoes and a strong flashlight
are highly recommended for this lava tube. There
is not much to see in the tunnel, but I still
found it interesting.
On forest roads one comes from
time to time to signs saying "Pavement ends".
