Returning To Common Ground.............

A Return Trek to the Yellow Jacket Sno-Park.....Lost River Road, Mazama....this time it was snowing pretty good...no snowmobiles on the trail...looked like it had been a day or two since anyone has been up it....the weather was sitting at about 18 degrees but still felt pretty good....My nephew is quiet the trooper....one of my constant companions for hiking and snowshoeing.....I can almost always drag him out to the great outdoor with the promise of a stop at the Cinnamon Twisp Bakery and Blue Star Coffee....We ventured off the trail after we made it up a switch back or two....wandered through the trees...it was quiet the battle to get up the side hill....lots of deep snow and pretty slick....took some effort to make any progress...of course the little one just bombs it up the hill in front of me...makes me feel soooo out of shape....snowshoeing is quiet the exercise.....made it to a fairly even spot and headed out at an angle to connect back with the main trail...it was a pleasant little hike among the trees....dropped back down onto the trail for a short rest then from there we took the short cut trail straight back down to the parking lot.....on our way back down the Methow Valley we stopped and waited for 2 fuzzy deer to cross the road just outside of Twisp....they didn't seem to be in a big hurry to get out of the way....they pretty much own the road up here....beautiful weather the last few days...blue sky's.....sad to be stuck in the office and have to wait for the weekend to get back out there......

Comments

Not all trails are created equal

Beautiful big views, abundance of flowers, snow capped mountains all around and singing birds. I love this hike when the flowers are blooming. This is a hike you can do multiple times in the spring and there is always new flowers blooming. The mountain views are incredible, a nice view of the valley floor looking up towards Mazama and back down towards Twisp. So much to see, hear and enjoy. This is the perfect hike for an evening adventure, not to long, a fairly easy hike, the birds are very active and keep you company as you make the loop. These pictures are only from one side of the loop, I ran out of good light to complete it since I stopped for every flower along the way. When the balsam root is blooming it is a beautiful display of golden flowers, intermixed with lupine and larkspur. I have hiked this trail many times over the years and am always amazed by natures incredible beauty. ...

The Places We Can Go

Life goes on, things change, storms of life come and go. One thing that always remains the same is the feeling and quiet peace I feel from being in the mountains. This was a spur of the moment overnight trip. It was so needed and such a beautiful time. Left the house around 2:30 PM, traffic was so slow heading up Hwy 20, lots of folks heading out of Mazama. Arrived at the trail head a few minutes before 4 PM, and we were off down the trail in a few minutes. Three quarters of a mile down the trail a bee or some kind of flying ant decided to bite my nieces eye lid, talk about hysteria for a moment. I was pretty sure our trip was over, but we were able to move on with a very cold creek soaked multipurpose face mask. The sun was sinking fast and the wind was howling by the time we reached the top. Made some quick decisions on the best place to park the tents, and we set up camp. It was truly an incredible evening, hiked aroun...

Yellow Jacket Sno-Park.......................

December 29th, 2012 came along with some beautiful weather in the Mazama area....broken blue skys and a nice 21 degrees.....with my little brother and his wife up visiting through the holiday season we ventured out to play in the snow.....We originally headed up to snowshoe the Cedar Creek trail....but Hwy 20 wasn't plowed past the first sign at the bottom.....and when we came across the Early Winters bridge we could see trucks and cars parked on both sides of the road....somewhere between 25-40 rigs.....lots of snowmobile trailers.....we decided that we needed to locate another snowshoeing spot with a little less traffic since my brother wanted to do a little snowboarding if possible......so we headed to Yellow Jacket Sno-Park....Large parking area with just a few vehicles parked....we strapped on our gear and headed up the trail....nice easy hike up a groomed snowmobile track....lots of places to step off the trail and explore...we pretty much stuck to the trail on the way up.....

Lost In The Right Direction

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