Gold Bar, Washington

 We woke to a steady downpour.  I guess the PNW weather has finally caught up with us....

But I had bought tickets months ago to ride the Snoqualmie Railroad so off we go....waiting at the North Bend Depot, the train arrived just on time (since it's an out/back train ride, this is the rear of the train.)

 

This is the engine for the train today.

 

 The conductor played his part nicely.

Into the train, there were several different style cars.  

 

This one was in a bit better shape but maybe a bit less comfy.

 

 Conductor and engineer discussing something important.

 

Underway, we passed the museum that we'll tour on the way back.  Lots of old/abandoned railroad cars.

 

This was some sort of snow-removing equipment - apparently a very difficult problem for the trains of the time.

Passing Snoqualmie Falls and the adjoining hydro electric power plant.  We'll visit this later in the day on foot.  This is the very top of the falls.

 

The view of the river past the falls.  Unfortunately, there weren't any mountain views because of the low clouds.

On the train, we stopped several times to see things along the way.  The conductors/stewards were great (even if a little nerdy...)

Views would have been phenomenal if it had been sunny....

About an hour into the trip, we stopped at the railway museum in Snoqualmie.  A very nice display of railroad memorabilia.  We only had 1/2 hour to tour though before we heard the whistle blow.

Nice equipment under roof.

 

Back to the depot, time to move onward.  The next stop was to view the Snoqualmie Falls from the ground.  After having to hunt a bit for parking (note to self, Saturdays are busy!), it was a short walk to view the spectacular falls from the nice platform provided by the power company.

 Since the crowd was walking down a trail, we decided to follow.  (I had not researched this falls very well, I admit).  The trail was very nice, but completely downhill.   Cool tree that had grown it's roots over an old ancient stump.  Now the stump is pretty much rotted away, leaving the roots of the new tree in "mid-air".

 

On further down the trail we crossed the hydroelectric power plant piping.

 

Lovely view up close of the river we saw from the train far above.

And finally arrived at the base of the falls.  Lovely but I'm not sure it was worth the walk back up the hill!! 

 

All of this took quite a few hours of the day so it was time to head to our next AirBnB in Gold Bar.  On the way, we hike a few miles of the the Wallace Falls state park trail since we were just a few minutes early for the check-in time at the cabin.  We didn't make it to the falls but the river was lovely.

 

View from the trail of the nearby mountains after the clouds cleared a bit.  (Couldn't get a view without the power cables.)

Our cute little cabin....

 

And this is the view from back porch of our cabin in the woods!

 

 

 

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.