June 28-30
By Eliza (the cattle ranch part is by Erin:)
Before arriving in the National Park, we spent a couple days in the western foothills at a cattle ranch. We had a secluded site a short walk from the Skagit River, where we spent hours, and we loaded up on beef!
Now about the Cascades…Wow was this park beautiful!! It was a true refreshment to the eyes and the soul. We ventured on a couple hikes in this park. We would’ve liked to do more but we were only here for two days. Our favorite hike was about nine miles. It was called Maple Pass. We didn’t see much for maple trees though. On this hike there were expansive views of multitudes of snowy mountains covered in conifers, deep blue mountain lakes, silver threads of waterfalls on far off slopes, and grassy alpine meadows along with gorgeous flowers of every color–pink, yellow, white, and purple. It was incredible!!! We can all agree it was one of our favorite if not the favorite hike ever! The only sad thing was that Dad had to work so he couldn’t come.
On our drive eastward out of the park, we were thankful to for clear, sunny skies! The below two photos are sites just off the highway.
Washington Pass lunch spot above
Diablo Lake, and no, we did not photoshop its stunning color!
Maple Pass Loop Hike photos below:
Lunch overlooking Lake Ann
Plenty of snow to hike across as we gained elevation.
Overlooking seas of mountain peaks at the top of Heather Pass before the clouds settled back to obscure the view.
Kids hiking through the snow from Heather Pass to Maple pass in the midst of the cloud.
Abel ready to hike along the ridge.
The snow made the trail inaccessible here, so Eliza is helping Lev down the short scramble to catch the trail again.
Eliza with a cloud-blocked view
Hiking through meadows of glacier lilies
Glacier Lily close-up
More alpine flower pics! It’s kinda my obsession to take close-ups of flowers;)
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