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Up Top | Enchantment Lakes & Wenatchee NF
Climbing up Aasgard Pass was slow going, taking us about three hours to get up to the top. For the first third of the trail cairns marked the path somewhat clearly. I was leading, and somewhere near the middle of the climb I started having difficulties following the trail as the path became more scree-like instead of boulders. It didn’t help that there were smaller cairns that sometimes lead in different directions. A couple of times we slid a bit, causing us to halt in our steps and steady ourselves. Around the two-thirds-of-the-way mark I heard sounds but couldn’t see anyone. I looked up and to the left and found…
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Colchuck Lake | Enchantment Lakes & Wenatchee National Forest
At the junction of the Stuart Lake trail and the trail that leads to Colchuck Lake we stopped on a rock to take a break. The walk from the Mountaineer Creek had left the shade of the forest and began winding its way up the side of the mountain. Overall not difficult but the heat was rising. Despite the northwest having a reputation for being rainy and cloudy, we came during a week or sunshine and temperatures upwards of 100* in the valleys and 80s and 90s in the mountains. We sat eating a snack, fending off a sneaky chipmunk and then meeting several groups of hikers, including two women…
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A Day’s Worth of Dirt Rings
Yesterday I spent practically the entire day working in the yard. Having been gone for several weekends in a row it was time to get some work done. And the title of this post…well, I was pretty filthy when I finally came in shortly after 6pm yesterday. I had arm rings, neck rings, dirt covering my legs and feet; I was awesomely filthy! All the filth was well worth it as I ticked off items on my to-do list. This photo is really for Chel because it shows our nasturiums coming up in our front flower bed. They are coming along nicely and I hope they take over the bed…
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Enchanted By Light on Barnes Creek | Olympic National Park
There is one thing this trail area was not short on and that was beautiful light peeking through the canopy and filtering onto the forest floor. Everywhere I turned there was something beautiful to look at, to soak in, and wish I could bottle up forever. Decadent. Stunning. Gorgeous. And Simple. All you need is a bit of the outdoors.
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Marymere Falls | Olympic National Park
We had a long drive ahead of us as we had to leave the Olympic Peninsula and head to Wenatchee National Forest but that didn’t deter us from making a stop or two before completely leaving the Olympics. I *may* have been a little too excited to have picked up Canadian radio stations….I mean, Canada was right there. Wanting a short but scenic hike we chose the Barnes Creek Trail to Marymere Falls for its nearness to the road due to our time constraints. The trail itself is flat until shortly after crossing the creek and then it is a decent ‘up’ but it is well graded and not difficult…
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Forks: Quiet and No Glittering Vampires
I really thought we were going to miss visiting Forks. We’d approached the Olympic peninsula from a different direction than I’d scouted online so I didn’t think we’d make it. If you have no idea what the significant of Forks, Washington is you have probably never read or watched something called Twilight. Forks was, well, quiet, what you’d expect from a small industrial town (think logging and fishing). It has a handful of small diners, a couple of gas stations, a grocery store and I’m sure there was a little bit more but we drove right through town and exited out the other side. Chris was nice enough, and probably…
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Pumpkins with the Whitlocks
+WILLLLSOOOONNNN! +Painting pumpkins with my family last weekend. Zoe is in pre-school now and is smart, smart, smart! Grayson is growing fast and is an adorable troublemaker. The kid does.not.stop. Go! Go! Go! is hit motto. I keep wanting to cuddle with him like I did with Zoe when she was his age but he doesn’t want any of that. He has legs and wants to use them. The cat is Kylie, aka: Colley….Zoe’s original name for her. Zoe loves her some Kylie and Kylie is kind of like Grayson and does not like to be cuddled! Never a dull moment when children are involved!
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Basking In The Last Bits of Light
….or working in the last bits of light. Either one. That’s what happened this evening as dusk settled in and despite the grey throughout the entire day the sun decided to peek through and throw some red, orange and yellow into the evening sky. Only for a bit. Then it faded off into other countries for the night. I’m thankful that I am able to come home for lunch if I choose to. This is a complete difference from my job in Florida where my commute was anywhere from 30 minutes when I lived in western Miami-Dade county or an hour to an hour and ten minutes when I lived…
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Four Years Ago & Present Tense
I went looking on my Flickr account for something pretty to post from years past taken on this date. I found this photo from 2008, four years ago, when I was at my parent’s house for two weeks for my ten year high school reunion, and one of my best friend’s weddings. The tree in the photo is a pecan in my parent’s backyard, but the atmosphere of the photo then versus this weekend was completely different. Sunny in the photo, chilly in the 50s and overcast this weekend. It’s a little strange that the photo happens to be from a weekend home because I think it was somewhere around…
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Mountaineer Creek | Enchantment Lakes & Wenatchee NF
I’m going to step away from writing about the Hoh Rainforest and return to that in a few days. Now I want to delve into the main reason we went Washington: to go to the Enchantment Lakes. Last Thanksgiving when we went to Guadalupe Mountains National Park we met Sheri and Randy in the parking lot at the McKittrick Canyon trailhead. We talked to them for a good bit and got the word that the Enchantment Lakes were a must see. We decided that this would be a great trip for our 10th wedding anniversary so Chris put in for the permit drawings. Yep, this place is so popular you…