Trip to Washington State

 Well, last week we were supposed to be at our annual Mountain Meadow week.   Unfortunately, due to COVID, they were closed again.  

We did our best to make the most of the week off, deciding to take a trip to the Pacific Northwest.  We still were able to do a lot of hiking, doing four-10 mile hikes during our week--and Alaina did great.

We started our trip at Mt. Rainer.   Alaina studied Mt. Ranier on "zoom school", so she was exited to visit it in person.   We got super lucky with the weather, missing a big heat wave that happened just a week before we arrived.   The weather was in the 70s, and sunny and clear.   Because we booked pretty late, most of the lodging was sold out.   We rented a small cabin in Ashford, on the Western border of the park.  

On our first day, we hiked the Skyline trail.   The views and wildflowers were beautiful, and as a bonus we saw marmots and a mountain goat!  We could see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and even Mt. Hood!

 

The next day we headed tot he Eastern side of the park to the Sunrise area.   This area was equally beautiful, though less crowded, as it was more isolated.   There we hiked the Summerland trail, to a beautiful meadow.

After Rainer, we headed to Leavenworth, which is a small town on the eastern edge of the Central Cascades.   The town is designed in a Bavarian style, since the mountains look like the Alps.   It was slightly kitschy, but still somewhat tasteful.   

On our first day, we took a whitewater rafting trip along the Wenatchee River.   The water level was fairly low, so it was tame, but the kids had a blast.   

Our hiking in leavenworth centered around the Enchantment Mountains--beautiful granite cliffs famous among backpackers.   Getting a camping permit in the Enchantments is reportedly harder than winning the lottery. But day hikes are pools too--so that is what we did.  We took a hike to Lake Colchuck, and it was absolutely stunning--the lake was glacial and a brilliant blue color.

We were scheduled to leave the following day to head to the North Cascades National Park, but we got a message from our hotel that a large wildfire forced a road closure and the hotel was closing.   So, we decided to stay another day in Leavenworth and take a hike to Stuart Lake, which, per our guidebook was equally as beautiful as Lake Colchuck.  It turns out that although it was beautiful, it was also infested, and I mean completely infested, with mosquitoes.  They were the thickest I have even seen, and though we had on but spray, they still harassed us constantly--to the point where we decided we could not stay at the lake to picnic.   It was too bad, because it was also very pretty--though not the glacial blue waters of Lake Colchuck. That evening, Ethan counted 62 bites on his shoulders and back where he did not have bug spray.   So it was a bit rough.

The following night we headed to Seattle, and met up with my friend Susan from medical school for dinner.   It was nice to catch up and see how much her kids had grown!

On our last day, we went to Jason's second cousin Alan's house for brunch--before catching the plane back to SF.

So, overall not exactly what we had planned, but still a nice getaway nonetheless.