Friday, July 10, 2020

Photo Friday: Washington Dayhikes and Sunsets

My boys and I traveled to Seattle to spend a little time with family, especially my mom and my brother and his family. It was a good time to relax and get taken care of a bit, and we also fit in a couple of dayhikes with Dave's brother and his wife. Seattle was delightfully cool and while we never did see Mt. Rainier (never in the right place at the right time), we enjoyed some good views of other things.

Our first and best hike was a 9 1/2 or 10 mile hike to Melakwa Lake. Like most of the hikes near Seattle, I'd been there before--30 years ago. Funny, but I didn't remember much about it.

The hike starts out climbing up beneath the westbound lanes of I90. It felt a bit like the Ewok world in Star Wars--all forest and primitive, then up above there's this space-age transportation thing.

Fantastic waterfall 1/3 of the way up.

We enjoyed our lunch at the lake, but weren't inspired to swim, as temps were in the high 50s and there was still snow down to the water in places.

The second hike, up the Ira Spring trail to Mason Lake, was less scenic, and as we'd failed to realize Friday was the holiday for the 4th, far more crowded than we liked. I did get a few good shots, though.

Trufula trees, er, bear grass grew in several places along the trail.

I'm pretty sure these are a berry, but my mind refuses to come up with an ID.

Nearly every night gave us a beautiful sunset from my brother's home, too.



We were definitely a little sorry to come home, back to the land of way too hot!

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All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.
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6 comments:

  1. Glad you had a weekend with the family. I would, too, with a view like that from my brother’s house!

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  2. Summer is the time to visit--long, beautiful days and almost never hot. June can be pretty wet--we got some rain while there, which to Californians just feels good.

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  3. Gorgeous shots. Thanks for sharing. Took me back so when we lived in the area (Kent) in the early 80s. We were out hiking the areas (there are SO many beautiful hikes) almost every weekend. Even hiked with a Dave & Tom a few times. They always knew the best places and scenery, too. While Seattle has changed (more people) the beauty of the the Pacific NW remains.

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    1. I was hiking them in the late 80s. The mountains are more crowded than they were then, but still beautiful.

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