We've been thinking it would be nice to move to Washington state and retire there.

Would like some opinions and advice on this; we've never been there but it looks so beautiful.

Is it humid? My husband has asthma and humidity really bothers him.

We're thinking of Olympia as a strong possibility for us.

If not there, then maybe somewhere in Orange County California or San Diego..

VQ:

I suggest U & Hub visit Sequim!

* No state income tax

* We have (mostly for guys) a Home Depot here!!

* A terrific Beach - Dungeness Spit

* Close to Victoria BC for when border re-opens

* Olympic mtns, Hurricane Ridge

* While doing errands yesterday, saw 4 deer, they are regularly seen on my street!

* Community theatre

Lots of retired folks here, housing is cheaper than most of W. Washington

Weather is much drier.

Lots of hiking, biking, boating, & other recreation opportunities.

humidity in the winter can be a challenge, but summers, when more ppl are outdoors, it's fine!

*** O, & btw, Clallam County went for Biden, one of a few bell-weather counties in the nation that have consistently picked the WINNAH!!! ***

PM me for more info!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2021 12:19PM by GNPE.

Considering Washington was a slaveholder, the state named after him might be next on the chopping block.
/Joking
WA State just got named the #1 place to live in America by US News.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington
But the Fall-Spring climate is not for everyone.
It rains here a lot for 9mo. Sometimes it rains every day for 9months. If gray skies make you sad, you will be miserable in WA. Seasonal Affect Disorder is a real thing and affects those sensitive to lack of sunlight. We deal with it by drinking lots of really good coffee (not Starbucks, which got chased out of Olympia) and gearing up (REI). Jobs are abundant and people are generally very liberal, with a few exceptions that make WA State seem like a White Nationalist hotbed (See Borat’s new film).
All of that aside, when the skies do part, we are rewarded with breathtaking views of paradise on Earth, an inland sea full of life, and emerald islands, surrounded by snow capped mountains on all sides and THE Mountain, Tahoma, ‘the breast of the Earth’ to the native Salish, Rainier to those who followed James Cook, who erroneously named the tallest glaciated volcano in America after his dearest Rear Admiral, who never laid eyes on the peak or even the continent it dominated.
It is a land teaming with life, in evergreen forests, fed by many rivers. The Ocean is 90minutes North or West of Olympia. The Mountain, Paradise, is 90minutes East. The Columbia Portland/Vancouver, is 90minutes South and Seattle is an hour North. It’s a good place to live, if you love the outdoors, wildlife, art, music, good coffee, good people, moderately priced homes and good paying jobs.
It’s a bad place to live if you are a conservative who hates gray skies and rain, but like we always say,
“Gray is the price we pay
For neighboring with eagles
And sensing the power of mountains
Both seen
And unseen”

Sequim is in a Rain Shadow made by the Olympic Mtns.

Thank you GNPE and schrodingerscat; Washington sounds like one of the most beautiful places on earth.

schrodingerscat: when you mention great coffee, you wouldn't happen to be talking about Boyds Coffee? That is my favorite coffee, and it can't be bought anywhere in Utah; I have to order it online.

We love the outdoors and looking for and photographing wildlife.

It sounds like whether it's Sequim, or any other place, there's plenty of elbow room and beauty.

valkyriequeen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you GNPE and schrodingerscat; Washington
> sounds like one of the most beautiful places on
> earth.
>
> schrodingerscat: when you mention great coffee,
> you wouldn't happen to be talking about Boyds
> Coffee? That is my favorite coffee, and it can't
> be bought anywhere in Utah; I have to order it
> online.
>
> We love the outdoors and looking for and
> photographing wildlife.
>
> It sounds like whether it's Sequim, or any other
> place, there's plenty of elbow room and beauty.

No my wife is a coffee snob, who only drinks locally roasted coffee beans, Olympia Coffee.

Just before you decide to move here, be aware of the amount of rain we get. It's a lot. If you don't mind gray and rain, and I don't, then it's great.

https://vacationidea.com/washington/seattle-rain.html

I'm betting SC $100 that he(?) can't document 9 months of measurable precip every day in Washington for the prior 15 - 20 years



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2021 01:01PM by GNPE.

He can't. The most days in a row is 58 in 1961 from what I've seen online. There have been 90 days in a 120 day period, but never 9 months everyday.

The most I've seen is around 30 days in a row, on one or two occassions, but summer makes up for it :)

My boyfriend's daughter lives close to Vancouver, so when we can go up to visit, I'll have him take me there.

This is what I can say about WA. My friends back when I was in my 20s lived in Redmond, WA. They took me all over in the 7 or so times I visited before they moved. Rainier is GORGEOUS. That is when i first saw the ocean on one of the trips up there.

What I always used to think is the song that was the song for a TV show back in the 1970s I believe. The first line goes something like this, "The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle, and the hills the greenest green are in Seattle." Loved Seattle back then, but I hear it isn't so pleasant these days. Puget Sound also breathtaking.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2021 01:07PM by cl2.

There is a Facebook group called, "View from my Window." People from all over the world send in views from their homes. From what I've seen, Washington State is consistently one of the prettiest places on the planet. Other beautiful places include New Zealand, South Africa, and Norway.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is a Facebook group called, "View from my
> Window." People from all over the world send in
> views from their homes. From what I've seen,
> Washington State is consistently one of the
> prettiest places on the planet. Other beautiful
> places include New Zealand, South Africa, and
> Norway.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, literally.
Just like a rainbow doesn't exist outside of you.
without you seeing it.
Without the photons from the sun refracting, then reflecting off of the back of a raindrop and landing on the rods and cones on the back of your eyeball in a 40-42degree angle that you interpret as ROYGBIV, which your brain interprets as a rainbow.
Only then, does it become a rainbow, in your mind's eye.

It doeesn't exist outside of you.
Rainbows only exist in your mind.
Same with the rest of reality
It only exists in your mind
Without you here to see it
to experience it,
to have consciousness
of consciousness
Consciousness does not exist

Consciousness is the natural product of evolution
of consciousness
the source

cl2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
The first line goes something like this,
> "The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle,
> and the hills the greenest green are in Seattle."

caffiend Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cl2 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> The first line goes something like this,
> > "The bluest skies you've ever seen are in
> Seattle,
> > and the hills the greenest green are in
> Seattle."

It really depends upon where you live in WA, like people have been saying. it has ALL of the ecological biomes, I learned in Biology. it's the only state with 7 out of 8 Biomes. From Ocean, to INland sea, to Rivers to deserts, grasslands, Coniferous forests, rain forests, sub alpine and alpine, all in one state. And it has islands! Which is what we love about it most. We can get in our Kayaks and paddle over to the island family lives on nearby any time of year, if we want. Along the way we'll see seals, sea lions, sometimes killer whales and gray whales, and every kind of bird you can think of. I'm a wildlife glass artist and I mainly study and sculpt herons. One particular kind of heron, Great Blue Herons, but I love all birds. Where I grew up people shot them. But they are like feathered pterodactyls to me and very zen.
And they're everywhere on the Nisqually Reach of the Salish Sea. I live here because of the history of this place. Where Chief Seattle gave his famous speech, that's called the greatest environmental speech ever given. He was a wise man and I did a monument to him for his tribe.
Because where he is burried now has a big white cross on it, next to a Catholic Church, when he was originally burried he had a big cedar log gate with a canoe on top of it with him in the head of the canoe and his braves behind him. So I recreated that, in $88,000 worth of Cedar Logs and water jet cut steel in front of their Casino, Clearwater.

I love herons as well. Maryland is home to many herons. I am always thrilled to see one.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love herons as well. Maryland is home to many
> herons. I am always thrilled to see one.
Yeah they are widely distributed all over the world, not unique to any one place, but their necks fold up in very Zen YinYang Tao symbols.
They are ancient Roman, Greek and Egyptian symbols of Phoenix, which does in flames at night and is reborn in its ashes every morning, like the sun. There are creation myths involving Benu the Phoenix Creator God, who’s sound created the land out of water.
I always thought they were amazing and so pterodactyl like especially in flight.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2021 05:31PM by schrodingerscat.

Yes, I agree, their flight is a thing of beauty.

I remember that show vaguely. I had to look it up. It was from "Here Come the Brides"

I grew up in Everett, WA on Puget Sound. Very beautiful, but it does rain more there and its typiclly cooler than SW WA. Its also very "narrow" in that you are blocked by the sound to the west and the mountain range to the east, so it feels like you mostly just travel north and south. Freeway is very crowded and slow.

I moved to Vancouver, WA in 1994 and stayed there until 2011. I like SW WA better than Puget Sound. The water of the sound is great, but SW WA has big rivers, lakes, waterfalls and is only about an hour from the ocean or the mountains. The weather is dryer too and you can travel in all 4 directions so it feels bigger, more space than the sound. Portland, OR is just across the Columbia river and housing is less expensive than the sound areas.

We moved to Oregon City, OR in 2011, about 8 miles east of I-205 in a very rural area. Absolutley love it here! We have a bit of property, big creek running through the back, deer in the yard, nesting eagles just through woods out back, herons, kingfishers, running salmon every year, several kinds of wild ducks, bobcat's, an occasional cougar, hawks, falcons, and more. The rural area is a bit less expensive than the city and the space around us is great.

Its been great during the pandemic to be able to step outside into a park like setting with space from neighbors, have a firepit by the creek, watch the animals. Great for photography too.

I'm taking tomorrow off so we can continue the clean up from the ice storm. Hoping its a burn day so we can have big burn pile and get rid of some of the branches. I got a lot of good firewood though, nice hardwood...maple, ash, oak, cherry, pear. :)

Love Oregon City, especially the old Blues Bar, which was our favorite hangout in the pre-Covid good old days.

https://www.facebook.com/TrailsEndSaloon/

My awesome ExMo Sister lived up the hill in West Linn for a lot of years so we partied on OC a lot. She still lives in Portland, on a houseboat on the Columbia, with a boat garage, right downstream from the Island Cafe, which is heavenly on a day like today.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2021 01:26PM by schrodingerscat.

I know Trails End Saloon, but haven't been there. We're 2 miles from the Redland Cafe so we go there for grill food. I'd like to check out the music when it opens up again. I play music with people in West Linn. A married couple that lives just off the Abernathy bridge, and just starting with a couple guys, one lives in West Linn where we practice at his house...all 12,500 sq. feet of it! Its like a hotel, but no yard, just house and lots of it.

There are several new places for beer and food, and a food cart pod just opened where the produce store was, across from the fish market. They are also renovating the old blue heron mill area, making it open for retail, business, pubic access to the falls, etc.

We'll be in PdX tomorrow. We are glass sculptors and frequently make trips to PdX for glass supplies and visits to art galleries and we're Epicureans who love the food and shopping in PdX, especially the food carts, which are epic.
Yeah, highly recommend Trails End. It's usually great music, stiff drinks, decent grub and they have a dance floor. All kinds of fun.

Just so you'll know-

Northern King county & Southern Snohomish county are in what weather ppl call a 'convergence zone', it's where weather systems from different paths converge which often results in rain;

some ppl call Everett (Snohomish County, next to Puget Sound,) 'EverWet'...

That was the reason I escaped to Palm Springs shortly after graduating from high school and stayed for several years.

Did U ever visit the nudist / Clothing Optional places in P.Springs?


The Terra Cotta, where it was reported that JFK had a fling with MM, has gone textile,

another, the Morningside Inn, caters to gays.

I understand that Palm Desert is the closest now for straight ppl, what a SHAME!!!

Never visited a nudist colony in PS, but I did go to a nude beach in Vancouver BC the summer after high school.

In PS there was a gay resort next to the apartment I lived in...this was 1979 - 1982....but now days, the entire area has converted the apartments to gay resorts. Probably make more money that way.

I assume you're going to scout out where you want to live before you buy or rent a house, right?
If you do, you'll see that Olympia, like most cities on the West Coast, is experiencing a homeless crisis at the moment. But don't worry about that, it's just capitalism completely failing society's most vulnerable people, the mentally ill, physically disabled and drug addicted and as a result, our city streets have become lawless insane asylums and disease infested drug dens. It's been this way for awhile, the pandemic has made it even worse, much worse. And it's about to get even worse once the evictions are allowed to go forward. Good thing it's coming into spring/summer, because we are going to see masses of people kicked out on the street, urban camping.
It's not just the West Coast. Seattle is worse. Tacoma it's bad. Portland, Salem, Eugene, just keep going South.
It will happen more and more as AI and robots take over the jobs humans do. If humans don't work, because all the robots took over their jobs, what do they do to earn money?
Play the lottery?
Slots?
Good luck with that!
Smart money is on GameStop STocks!

You need to check real estate prices in OC and SD. You'll be shocked. People with any kind of money don't retire to CA. They move from San Diego and Orange County to CO, AZ, UT, WA, etc.

We would like to go there soon and check out Sequim and Olympia; trying to find places that aren’t so expensive.
It sounds so beautiful; plenty of space.
I see where Washington is number 1, Minnesota #2, and Utah#3.
Thank you everyone for your opinions and comments; we appreciate them very much.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington

Depends on what you want, where to settle down.
Seattle is tickin' Olympic Peninsula sedate.
Olympia sort of in between.
https://smartasset.com/retirement/best-places-to-retire-in-washington
Robust property taxes but reasoned logical governance
Folks reasonably tolerant
Long grey winters
Cascades scrape the moisture from the Pacific air so drier and more open spaces to the east of them

No great surfing or scuba if that's your thing

Good luck wherever settle!

to add because of the latitude ~47 north, the sun is a good 15 degrees lower in elevation vs. San Diego, so winters it's morning all day, sun never arcs "high" -- roughly 15 hour nights. So not a great choice for any vulnerable to seasonal dysphoria

Might be why coffee is such a thing

How about the "Heart of the Wine Country"? A bit dryer than WA. Lots of little towns, good healthcare. Forrest, access to the beaches, rolling hills and many many MANY wineries. Farmers Markets, community festivals, flower festivals, parks and walking trails. Access to bigger cities if you want/need them. Blue herons there too.

Email me for more info.

https://www.google.com/search?q=willamette+valley&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS840US840&sxsrf=ALeKk02tuh0I-O85P_UXNVwHH-JEVmVz5Q:1615520877496&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9256g7KnvAhXTl54KHS_NBewQ_AUoAnoECBgQBA&biw=1536&bih=754

Yes, it's reputedly a great area. But I'm told that even stopping to gas up your Volkswagon is enough to turn you into a cultural Marxist.

It's in the water, like flouride.

Actually some towns are quite conservative.

I jest. Just playing with stereotypes.

Oh, wow! The Williamette Valley is beautiful, too! Thanks Susan for sending those pictures...
One of our daughters and son in law want to move there, particularly Washington, and they would like us to go with them; I’m going to tell them about Williamette also.
We’re excited to see and check out all of these places, but also hesitation about pulling up stakes and moving..it would be a challenge at our age, that’s for certain.

Hi Valkyrie, not knowing more about you, I am restricted in background information. Nevertheless I can say that I live in rural Coast Range, OR some 30 miles out of Eugene and I am in my paradise. I relocated alone at age 55 from SLC. There is no comparison - none - with my former location in Canyon Rim. I have an idea of where Susan I/S lives. She knows whereof she speaks! Keep in mind half the year is gray and often showery, if not outright rain. I have recorded 37" precip since last Sept. If you can't work with that, you will not be happy. Anecdotal evidence is some number of CA people try to relocate here and leave after the first winter. I personally can wish for no other. Best wishes.

The funny thing is once you get used to the grey winter/spring season you love it. I can't imagine living in So Cal again and the never ending relentless beating sun day after day after day till your eyes and brains are fried. It's cold and you are inside so who cares if it rains? Use the white bulbs in the house. Put a Happy Light on your desk if you want. I love the sound of rain. Driving in it is nothing compared to snow. You don't have to shovel it. It gives you fields of wildflowers and daffodils covering the median on the highway. Some years it is beautiful through October. April you never know but by May things are pretty.

Down by Eugene is nice but their winters can be harder. Bend can get a lot of snow. Some people from CA may have problems with the grey but a whole lot sure stay :)

Yup. Susan I/S knows whereof she speaks.

I'm VKP and I approve this message.

Yeah winters are long and dark but skiing is epic.
So, fair trade!
We don’t let weather stop us from getting outdoors.

No, rain doesn't keep us in. Just don't use an umbrella!

Susan I/S Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No, rain doesn't keep us in. Just don't use an
> umbrella!

haha, that's the thing, nobody uses umbrellas here because the rain is just a constant drizzle. Like living in a cloud for most of the year. But when the sun does come out, on days like today, the clouds part and we see freshly dressed breasts of the Earth all around us, all dressed in snow white and it takes your breath away, every time it happens.
And we know that we'll be able to climb to the tallest hill around at sunset and see the alpineglow of Tahoma, the breast of the Earth to the native Salish, because she nourishes this land and the Salish Sea, the Columbia and the Pacific.
The Beauty and the Terror
Coexist
in perfect balance
If you come to Washington
Come in the Summer or Fall and go to Mt. Rainier National Park, And you will find
Paradise
Nobody who ever goes there wonders why they call it Paradise
Both sides of my family, like many Washington Families, settled here because of Mt. Rainier.
They fell in love with the mere sight of her, while serving here at Ft. Lewis, during WWII
They trained on her shoulders
At her feet every day
Salish land
where they have lived since pre-historic times
To them, she is still sacred
and goes by the name, Tahoma
God, to them or,
The Nourishing Breast of the Earth
The glacial rivers that flow off of her every day, nourish the land from Seattle to Portland, the rivers, the Salish Sea, still to this day, are lifelines, the natives consider that milk from the breast of the Earth, which sustains them, still to this day.
I took my boss on a kayak trip down the Nisqually River recently. He tipped over on a log jam and flipped his kayak in the middle of the Glacier fed River in the middle of Winter. I tried to rescue him and told him to swim for the shore. A Salish Nisqually Native came by with his boat and asked if we needed help. I said, "Yes, please! I'd just as soon my Boss wasn't waist deep in the middle of a freezing river right now. By the time Indian John and his wife pulled my boss to safety, he couldn't move the lower half of his body. They dragged him and his kayak on to the beach. and we offered to pay them for rescuing us. They said, "We don't want your money. I've been in the same situation before and had to hike home for a mile with one boot through the snow." He handed us a roll of Paper Towels, a first aid kit to patch up the damage to my boss's legs and waved good bye.
We continued on to the Estuary and Salish Sea, having learned a valuable lesson.

Cheap gas is $3.55/gal now, and climbing here in No. Disneyland... you want some of that?

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the volcanos, and it's not just Mount Saint Helens. There are several others, some near enough to the cities to cause trouble. Mount Rainier is one of them and under sixty miles from Seattle.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/volcanoes-in-washington-state.html

I'd give it an A+ for scenery, but there are a lot of other issues. Many parts of the state are economically depressed.

It's not all nice and sweet in Washington like many have other posts have suggested.

Homelessness is a major problem, especially along I-5 with Seattle being the midst of it. Many Mom/Pop stores are closed not only because of the pandemic but because of the lawlessness of people just entering stores and taking what they want.

The Police are understaffed and court system just lets them go.

This is an informative video about the problems are experiencing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WijoL3Hy_Bw

Housing in Seattle is expensive, just do a Zillow search in the area for housing.

GNPE paints a pretty picture of Sequim and it is pretty. It's a retirement home, so if you are looking for a place to buy, there is new listings coming on the market daily.

As for the county GNPE lives, there are many small communities, while it doesn't make the news, they all have major drug problems. Things are too rural for the police to patrol the vast emptiness of the area.

Somebody mentioned low taxes, granted no income tax, but property taxes, especially in King (Seattle), Pierce(Tacoma) and Snohomish(Everett) are sky high. You pay about $500 extra for car tabs there to pay for the most expensive light rail system in the world.

Everett is just starting into a major employment hit. Boeing is shutting down it's airplane plant, affecting up to 3,000 employees. For those non-business majors, primary jobs like Boeing generate 10-15 support jobs in the community. That means up 45,000 people will be out of jobs with the coming year.

https://komonews.com/news/local/boeing-to-shut-down-787-dreamliner-production-in-everett

The mention of volcanoes, the volcanoes in the Cascades aren't like the ones in Hawaii. Our volcanoes ooze a thick pasty magma. This stuff heats up the mountain cause the glaciers and frozen mud to melt causing a lahar, a big mud slide.

Another interesting video of a lecture on Mount Rainier's Osceola Mudflow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMCXHewLIWc&list=PLwNJg2mCrcQRYmYJzHUv7YxO40JlNbAWe


This is just a different point of view of Washington, it isn't all wine and roses.

I just suggest you come out and visit and look around before you sell everything and pack up a U-haul and expect Paradise.

$500 extra for car tabs?

That's a GROSS EXAGGERATION!


eta a couple of notes to this:

- voters approved the 'Sound Transit' projects which will connect the east side (Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, etc) with downtown seattle, also a branch parallels I-5 planned to Lynnwood & perhaps eventually to Everett.

a major headache here is being assured you'll be able to park your vehicle at a park-and-ride lot; that capacity could easily be doubled by adding upper decks to existing ones, OR live walking distance to transit (many do!)

previous voters failed past attempts at 'rapid transit', now they're paying for it; the Amazon BOOM is drawing both skilled & unskilled construction workers here, their pay is astronomical right now, hence the costs of the light-rail have gone into orbit.

I believe the assembly of the 777 will remain at Everett, but 787 will end here soon; the last 747 ordered is nearing completion, but the AF 1 for POTUS: IDK if that's been started or still budget conflicts / pain existing. I don't think any other location can assemble a 747 (2 of them for POTUS' fleet).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2021 03:17PM by GNPE.

Thank you for the info from the other side, tumwater; it's important to know these things, and yes, we're planning to travel there and check things out first before diving in.
One thing that we are keeping in mind is that my husband has asthma and he can't be in a humid climate; that can really mess him up.
So we'll see how the trip goes and then take it from there.

If humidity is a problem for hubby, you might want to consider AZ instead. Western WA is a temperate rain forest. Humidity averse people usually move to AZ for the winter in retirement, if they can afford it. We call them ‘snowbirds’.

I have been thinking about your humidity question and I am not quite sure. Compared to So Cal it is. But when our friends from TN come to visit they say it isn't. We all went on a historic house tour once and there was a greenhouse and they said that is what it was like in TN. I lasted about 3 minutes and ran. I have never had need for any dehumidifying stuff. I have never gotten into bed with damp sheets like you do in SF. I tried to do a search but I am only coming up with things about allergies and asthma. Sigh.

Colorado has low humidity. Summers there are gorgeous and comfortable. There's lots of snow, but the cold is a dry cold.

I'd kill to live in OR or WA. I'm in SE Idaho next door (the part considered the armpit of Utah). I like it here well enough. I'm convinced you can be happy anywhere.

I live not too far from Yellowstone, so when that super volcano blows, this place is fried. I'd rather be worried about rain and volcanos NW of here. Oh well, no point worrying about what we can't control.

It's dry here in Idaho!
We went through the retirement location hunt but in the end, the grandkids needing grandparents around won out.

In my early days I lived and worked in Star Valley Wy and thought it was the most beautiful place in the world. I was of the wrong religion and to keep the gossip down, I went to the Catholic Church in Montpelier Id no matter how hung over I was.

I really liked both SV and Montpelier and thought at one time of wanting to relocate there. After I discovered that LDS was even more intense, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

In my later years, both Star Valley and Montpelier are a bit remote for major medical facilities that I might need adding to the reluctance to make the move.

Both places may still be beautiful, but they'll never be the places that my eyes saw 50+ years ago.

As far as being near the Yellowstone super volcano goes, there is another video on the super volcanos of the NW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcreTTI9Rew

What impressed me the most about the Yellowstone hotspot, it hasn't moved in million of years, continental plates have drift west over the spot. The Yellowstone hotspot was once under the coast of SW Oregon and as the continental plates drifted it appears the hotspot has tracked ENE to where it is now at Yellowstone. Eventually it'll be in North or South Dakota.

That area is beautiful but I'd worry about being below a big dam.

I'm sure not being LDS in that area was not fun.

Thanks for the interesting Yellowstone YouTube!

dagny Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That area is beautiful but I'd worry about being
> below a big dam.
>
> I'm sure not being LDS in that area was not fun.
>
> Thanks for the interesting Yellowstone YouTube!


I love volcanoes and can't live somewhere without them.
What I miss most about being away from home, is being able to orient myself to a big giant glaciated volcano, like Mt. Rainier, and all the other Volcanic peaks around here. I like knowing where I am in relation to the mountain, and the sea. When I go somewhere flat, like Texas or Oklahoma, it just feels like the energy is off. Something is just not right about not being able to see around you and know which direction you're headed, in relation to some fixed point in the distance.
I'm an architect and there's a book we all read in the first year of Architecture Undergrad, it's called, "Genius Loci: The Spirit of Place - towards a phenomenology of Architecture" It talks about the Ancient Roman Latin concept of "Genius Loci" or Spirit of Place (for lack of a better translation) the idea that each place has it's own spirit or "genius" phenomenology, it's own unique light, atmosphere, climate, flora, fauna, which influences human culture and expression. We can learn from that 'genius' or 'spirit' of that 'loci' Location, that place then we can respond to that genius, we can harmonize with it, strike a balance with it, between indoor and outdoor, and occupy and explore that zone in between.
There's a particular 'genius loci' that is really powerful every time I go to Mt. Rainier. We have a season pass and go there often throughout the year. And every time, there is this same feeling you get, this distinct powerful energy you feel coming from the mountain.
If you ever go to the top, it is like being on another planet. You don't suspect it. But it was different both times I was there, once when I was 18 and once 18 years ago. The first time I went, there was a forest of ice trees in the middle of the 1/4 mile across crater. Around the rim of the crater were black rocks that had steam coming up out between them and the ice in the crater. Some of the steam was so hot it would burn you. But some of the steam was warm and moist, like breath.
Some of the steam vents were so big you could walk upright down them 300ft below the ice forest above. Down there you'll find a luke warm lake, the highest lake in America, Lake Muriel,
suspended between the ice above and the fire beneath, that still rises to the surface.

http://www.highestlake.com/highest-lake-usa.html#:~:text=1.,Rainier.

Last time I was there, the forest was gone. It was just flat across the whole crater, but the steam caves were still steaming and warm like human breath, which was quite welcome on the windblown frigid summit. There was an elderly gentleman and his wife sitting on a blanket they had spread out for a picnic on top of the mountain with smoked salmon, cheese crackers and wine. I said to them, this looks like this is not your first time here. He looked at her lovingly and said, 'this is her 15th time.'
She looked back at him with a smile and said proudly, "this is his 50th time."
I told them they were my heroes.
They still are.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2021 01:52PM by schrodingerscat.