Sunset at Golden Gardens

One evening this week after work we drove about 15 minutes to a Seattle city park named Golden Gardens, which has one of several public beaches in the city. The beach looks west across Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains, and although we hadn't really planned it this way, we ended up witnessing a stunning sunset.

Sometimes friends or relatives ask us if we're going to stay living in Seattle for a while. I hope the last few picture albums I've posted help to show why we're in no hurry to leave.

Burroughs Mountain

Two straight weeks of sun and temperatures in the 70's did a lot to clear the snow that had been clogging our favorite hikes in the mountains. Knowing this, we drove on Saturday to Mount Rainier, parked at the Sunrise Visitor Center, and hiked on Burroughs Mountain.

I guess you would call Burroughs an 'arm' of Mount Rainier itself. Although it's separated from Rainier's main body by a high pass (7500'), Burroughs is the eroded remains of an old lava flow that poured out of Rainier millions of years ago. It's less of a mountain than a longish ridge that has 3 summits (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) that get higher the closer you go to Rainier's main body - i.e. the further you go from Sunrise. "3rd" is the highest at 7828'.

Although 2nd Burroughs was our original goal - we'd been there before but forgotten the camera - we got there in good time, ate lunch, and decided to push on to 3rd. It was worth it. Although 2nd Burroughs is a spectacular place and well worth the hike, 3rd is better yet. I'm inclined to agree with our guide book, which says, "On a clear day 3rd Burroughs is surely the grandest alpine vista available as a day hike anywhere in the U.S."

We happened to take some amazing pictures; indeed, it would be difficult not to. If you click through the photo stream I've added a bunch of comments to describe what you're seeing. [Jason & Emma, these will be of particular interest to you, as a lot of the landmarks you'll be backpacking around are visible - I commented some of them.]

In case you're interested, we hiked about 10 miles and climbed a total of about 3500 vertical feet.

Anya also took a rough video of me sliding down a snowfield with my jacket tied around my waist - you should be able to watch it below. [fyi - on my computer it plays in super fast motion the first time; hit play again to watch it at normal speed]

Parent's Visit

I'm somewhat delayed in posting a few pictures of my parents' visit; they actually went home a week ago. We had a fun time with them here over of the 4th of July weekend.

The pictures in this album are from a few various places in & around Seattle, including Alki Beach and a beautiful lakefront park in Bellevue. Enjoy...

Silver Falls & Grove of the Patriarchs

Silver Falls




Grove of the Patriarchs

It's understandable that many people who visit Mount Rainier go there to see the grand vistas that come with being the most prominent peak in the lower 48. It is also, then, understandable that most of those people wait until a sunny day to visit.

But, to me, one of the things that makes Mount Rainier NP such a special place is the wealth of different types of climates that you can find inside a relatively small area. Views obstructed by a layer of pea-soup fog? No problem, there's still plenty of amazing stuff to see.

My parents are here visiting for the holiday weekend and on Friday they wanted to go hiking. We drove to the SE corner of the park and during the course of a 4 mile hike saw two of it's numerous highlights:

Silver Falls isn't the tallest waterfall around, but it's one of the most impressive I've seen. Instead of being a picturesque, graceful veil (like some others I can think of), it's a violent torrent, one step in the way of a river that seems to be in an terrible hurry to get down the mountain.

A couple miles upstream the land is flat but the river moves with no less urgency. Hidden on an island, protected from fire and inaccessible to humans except for a pedestrian suspension bridge, is the Grove of the Patriarchs. These are some of the biggest trees in the park, and the grove is one of the most impressive stands of giant trees in the world.

Douglas Firs can grow to be 300 ft tall, making them second only to Redwoods in height. Along with the slightly smaller (but no less impressive) western hemlock and western red cedar, the giant firs make the Grove an almost spiritual place. It reminds me of being in a cathedral: people hush their voices and walk slowly, in awe of their surroundings.

The pictures from the day are here.