A day in Paradise, Mount Rainier National Park

Since it was Labor day weekend we knew that Mount Rainier would be busy. We left the motel early so we could park at Paradise. Beautiful morning, the weather was perfect. Mount Rainier was clouded in on top, but still a pretty awesome site. Headed up the Skyline trail with no real destination in mind, we were just there to enjoy the views and hike until we were tired. Met lots of nice folks on the trail, one couple gave us some interesting facts about Mount St. Helen's. Which was where we were at the the day before. Too bad he wasn't around when we toured Mount St. Helen's to give us more facts on site. From the Skyline trail we branched off onto the Paradise Glacier trail. Short trail, lovely display of flowers blooming among the rocks. Confiscated a large rock and ate a early lunch before continuing. The clouds around the mountain continued to lift, so that by the time we were back to the parking lot it was almost off. The trails started to get really busy by about 10 AM. Lots of people coming and going. We made a fairly large loop around dropped off the mountain down onto the Golden Gate Trail, stopped and watched hoary marmots playing in the grass. Back to the parking lot to watch the clouds lift and people watch. Mass amount of traffic, so glad we got an early start. As we headed out of the park the traffic just kept coming, got to the entrance gate and there was about 2 1/2 miles of cars waiting to get into the park. Wow that's a lot of people. It was a beautiful day, lots of flowers still blooming, lovely hike, even with all the people out it was a great side trip. I am going to bore you with lots of pictures, and more pictures.

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Echo Basin, Eastern Washington

Echo Basin was our last early spring hike in the Eastern Washington area. We were planning to hike the Frenchman Coulee side that heads toward the waterfall but changed our mind due to the amount of cars parked at the trail head. So down the road just a little ways we went to hike the Echo Basin trail. Even with a early start the sun was way too bright, not hot, just bright. We hiked up the jeep trail that starts on the left hand side of the road as your facing the Columbia River. Didn't seem like a real exciting trail till we reached the sand dunes, which put us closer to the rock walls. Up and over the sand dunes and on up a goat trail to get above the walls. Without really knowing were we were going we just winged it. Lots of faint trails and trails in the sand, hard to know which was the true trail. The rock walls are huge and fascinating, the columns are even more interesting up close. We hiked until we had a view looking down into Echo Basin, and a nice look at th

Cutthroat Trail.......Snowshoeing North Cascades Highway

I have a confession to make, I have been having some winter blues. Not sure if they can be officially called winter blues due to we have had little to no winter. I have been very impatiently waiting for the snow to arrive, it comes, blows through, makes the ground white, then its gone. The last few days we have been sitting at temperatures in the 40's. What is up with winter. One thing I can say for sure is I am very thankful for the few trips we made up highway 20 before the silver star gate was closed. Our trip to Cutthroat Trail was back in November, when we had visions of winter coming to the valley very soon. The snow was nice and fluffy and deep. Pleasant day to get out and enjoy it, one of those days where your not sure if the clouds where going to allow the blue sky to show it self or not. We parked right off the highway with a couple of other cars and Snowshoed up the road to the trail head. Wasn't very long and more hikers, cross country skiers, and furry

Looking For Mountain Views....................

Since I couldn't get anybody to go snowshoeing with me this last weekend....I went on a drive and took pictures.....It was a lovely day...lots of variation in the clouds...started down on the Columbia River in Pateros and continued on down towards Chelan...stopped at the park...which has a great view of the mountains...then on up around Manson...drove as many roads as I could looking for the best view of the mountains....drove a couple of roads I have never been on....what a festive little town Manson is right now....Drove on up towards Echo Ridge trail area...roads got a little on the icy side up in that area....then found my way back home....now I have a camera card or two loaded with pictures...plus basketball pictures.....lots of computer time...The season is moving right along...lots of new snow in the mountains...Can't wait to get out there and play.

Lost In The Right Direction

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