Flaming Geyser State Park

I've been driving past the signs for Flaming Geyser State Park for the last 13 years or so as I hurtled down highway 169 to Mount Rainier National Park. Everything I read about it said it wasn't that exciting. The Flaming Geyser of the name is a methane seep that a man hit while drilling for coal circa 1900. In the 1920s, the flame regularly stood 6-8 feet tall and people travelled for many miles to see it.

Then someone dynamited the seep in the 1930s and then the authorities capped it for safety in the 1960s, and when lit the flame now reaches around 6 inches high. Not quite the draw that it once was. The reports said the surrounding park was pleasant. So I've been driving past the sign year after year and ignoring it on my way to better places.

Now in the time of covid, pleasant and unspectacular is exactly what I'm looking for. Spectacular places draw crowds. So today I finally took that right turn off highway 169.

( Not a geyser in sight. )