North Bend, Washington

We left the AirBnB fairly early to get a headstart on a long day.  First, we drove to North Bend, Washington.  It was a rather mundane drive with a 1/2 hour backup as we neared Tacoma.  I guess all travel can't be thru pretty countryside and National Parks!

But the drive did turn very nice once we were in the Snoqualmie National Forest.  First hike was 2 miles to see the Franklin Falls.  The hike was along the stream - beautiful mountain stream with crystal clear water.

The falls were lovely and loud!

And the gorge view in the opposite direction was spectacular as well.

 

Duane snapped a photo of me near the falls.

  After a sandwich for lunch, we headed back towards North Bend to do a rather long hike - the Little Si hike.  It was 4 miles roundtrip to a beautiful view of the town of North Bend and the Snoqualamie valley.

Someone should have told me it wasn't a beginners hike, haha.  

Lovely forest.  That quiet walk that you get when there is moss all around....

 

Greenery everywhere.

 

 

 

But the terrain was a bit bumpy.  And 4 miles of this got tedious!

And a bunch of this too....

 About halfway to the top, there is an area that they allow mountain climbing.  There were several folks out risking their lives.....see if you can spot them.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, it wasn't a nice sunny day.  We'd had a few raindrops and the clouds were obscuring the view a bit down the valley.

 

Still lovely though.

We were pretty tuckered out - lots of elevation gain and lots of steps today!

 

Ashford, WA

 Today was Mt. Rainier day!  The forecast was for fairly chilly with showers moving in during the afternoon.  So we got moving fairly quickly for that reason....also because we'd read that the park fills up quickly and parking becomes a problem late in the morning.

Beautiful views of Mt. Rainier on the 20 mile drive up the mountain.

 

Stopped along the roadway to view Christine Falls. Always fun when it doesn't take a 2 mile hike to see a pretty waterfall.

We lucked out seriously with a parking spot just a few steps from the visitor center.  Others were having to park in  overflow parking or along the road.  We started right in on the hike of the day - the Skyline Trail.  It's about 5.5 miles long and takes you up to the glaciers on the mountain.  Not an easy one!  The valley views were just incredible.

Lots of snow!!  Glad we had good hiking boots.  The sign at the base said crampons were needed.  We found we were OK with just our boots.

We stopped to rest (frequently) and just admired the views.

Friendly little squirrels or chipmunks....I believe folks feed them.  We did not.

Views of the mountain were just better and better as we climbed.

No one told us we had to cross a freezing cold stream!  We made it hop-skipping stones without any trauma.

The snow was a bit dirty where we were all hiking.

We came across a few Hoary Marmots....apparently a bit different than ones elsewhere.

Twist and turns in the trail made the mountain look far away at times.  You can see some folks that were apparently on a guided tour climbing on the glacier.  No thanks....it was hard enough on the rocky trail!

Beautiful blue ice in places.

The views to the south (I think) were incredible as well.

This was about at the 3 hour mark on our hike.  The clouds started to move in.

Still beautiful views opposite the mountain.

I tried to get some wildflower photos but they don't seem to "pop" as much as they do in real life.

At about 4 hours, we finally started the trek downward.  

Clouds chasing us on the way down.  A few cold raindrops but that was all.

Another marmot was we headed further down the mountain.

All done in about 4.5 hours.....back to the car - so nice to set in the car and rest the feet.

On the way driving back down the mountain, we did stop for another easy waterfall photo - the one Narda falls. 

And one more stop to see the beautiful Nisqually river that runs the gorge along the highway into the park.

 Very tuckered out by a very strenuous hike for us old folks!!  In for an early night.

 

Ashford, WA

 We had an interesting stay at our AirBnB in Longview, WA....it was fine...it was just very "Brady Bunch Vintage".  The apartment was the entire basement of a 60's vintage house.  Plain birch plywood cabinets, low ceilings and believe it or not, sculpted olive green shag carpet!  Hard to believe but all of it was in excellent shape!  Like it had never been used much....I had seen the photos, of course, so I'm not complaining.  It was actually quite comfortable and exactly where we needed it to be for our trip.

 We're pretty good at packing everything up and getting on our way each morning.  Started the day by driving towards Mt. St. Helens.  

 

There are several visitor centers along the route and we stopped at them all.  We watched several short films and the displays were most informative.  We knew the basic story since we, of course, were alive and sentient in 1980 when it happened.

View from the first visitor center - still 40+ miles away so not a great view.

Driving towards the volcano, the views were spectacular.  

 

The wildflowers are in full display now.  

We took several short walks/hikes.  Cool under the trees but 90+ degrees in the sunshine!

Saw a small snake in the creek....he was sunning himself and paid no attention to us.

 

One mile trail promised "valley views"....this is all we got for a long trek out/back!

Getting closer to the volcano.

 

Sorry for the repetitious photos, it was just lovely.

 

As we drove thru the countryside towards Mt. Rainier in the early evening, we were treated to several beautiful lakes and rivers along the way.

 

It certainly is living up to our expectations!