The Olympic Peninsula

From Portland, we made the loooong drive to the Olympic Peninsula.  Our destination for the night was Kalaloch Campground along the Pacific coast.  After a four hour drive, we showed up at the campground just in time to grab one of the last open spots and walk down to the beach for sunset.  It was a beauty.  Waking up to the sunrise on Mount Hood to seeing the sunset at the Pacific Ocean is a pretty good day in my book.

Saturday morning we began our tour around the Olympic Peninsula via car.  From the Kalaloch Campground we followed Route 101 clockwise around the peninsula through Forks all the way around to Port Angeles.  One of the highlights of this journey was Lake Crescent (seen below).  The lake was a deep blue surrounded by mountains on all sides.  Beautiful.  

Once we reached Port Angeles we entered Olympic National Park via Hurricane Ridge Road.  After the beautiful seventeen mile drive up to Hurricane Ridge, we arrived to stunning 360 degree views of the Olympic Range.  A quick stop in the visitors center and we were off to Obstruction Point for our final hike of the trip.  From Obstruction Point we did a loop hike into Grand Valley via the Grand Pass Trail.  The main destination was two alpine lakes, Grand Lake and Moose Lake.  Moose Lake was especially beautiful, a deep green alpine lake surrounded by blake shale and abundant forest.  A spectacular sight.   From the lakes we took Badger Pass Trail back up to the trailhead through deep forest and many alpine meadows filled with screeching marmot.  This hike was one of my favorite of the entire trip...alpine meadows, views of the Olympic range, alpine lakes, wildlife.

We spent our final night of camping at Heart O The Hills Campground in the National Park.  It was a nice relaxing evening soaking up our last night in the wild.  Sunday morning we made the two hour drive back to Seattle.  We got to spend most of the afternoon in Seattle before having to head to the airport to catch our flights home.  We hit a couple of the famous tourist spots...Pike Place Market, Pike Brewery, the Space Needle, Olympic Sculpture Park, and Gas Works Park.  The view from Gas Works Park over Lake Union towards downtown Seattle was especially memorable.

I can't say enough good things about the Pacific Northwest.  It's a place that everyone needs to visit.  The abundance of blue waters and green forested mountains is unlike any other place.  I couldn't be more blessed to be able to take trips like this with my brother, Abe.  Let's plan another!

Mount Hood

We spent Wednesday night in Paradise Creek campground in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  Pulling into an empty campground after dark felt kind of like being in a horror film but we quickly picked a spot, got a fire going and then it was business as usual.

Thursday morning we made the hour drive to Hood River just in time for an early lunch.  Hood River lies right on the Columbia River and provides everything an outdoor enthusiast could ever dream of...water sports and quick access to Mt. Hood for summer hiking/backpacking and winter sports.  We ate lunch at Double Mountain Brewery, our first brush with civilization in four days.  The pizza and a local IPA were delicious and much needed.  We spent a bit of time enjoying the beautiful weather and checking out a few outdoor shops before heading off to Mount Hood.

We stopped at the ranger station to get a backcountry permit for the night and the park ranger ended up changing our backpacking plans.  We had originally planned to do a backpack loop in the Mount Hood Meadows area.  She talked us into do a backpack starting a Cloud Cap Campground, following the Timberline Trail and then up the Cooper Ridge Spur which goes up to 8000', one of the highest elevations you can get to on the mountain without doing any technical climbing.  It was rare to be able to have such warm and clear weather so she recommended we take advantage and get up as high as we could.

Carrying the packs for the first time on the trip felt quite a bit different on the legs.  The consistent climbing also didn't help.  We followed the Timberline Trail, which circumnavigates the base of Mt. Hood, for a mile and a half before hitting the Cooper Ridge Spur.  From this point, the trail climbed straight up via many switchbacks through the stark tundra zone of the mountain.  We climbed passed stunning viewpoints of Mt. Hood and icefalls of the Eliot glacier.  That is the closest that Abe and I had ever been to a glacier.  The scale is incredible.  On our way back down the mountain we decided that we were going to stay in the Cooper Spur shelter that we passed on the way up if no one had already claimed it for the night.  We were the first to arrive and claimed the dirt floor rock shelter.  About 30 minutes after we arrived, a couple ladies hiking the entire Timberline Trail joined us in the very small shelter for the night.  We were treated to an incredible sunset with the purple glow bouncing off Mt. Rainier, Mt. St Helens and Mt. Adams beyond (the picture below does the view zero justice).  After the sun went down, it was too cold and windy to hang out outside the shelter so it was early to bed for us.

This was quite possibly one of the worst nights sleep that I have ever gotten.  The combination of the cold, the wind, the uneven floor, the dust blowing in our faces all night and the mice crawling on us made it very tough to sleep.  Oh well, definitely worth the adventure!  After slowing crawling out of the sleeping bags we immediately headed back down the mountain towards the car...too windy for breakfast up high.

After getting back down the mountain we stopped at a campground to eat breakfast and get cleaned up before heading to Portland, our second brush with civilization.  The drive to Portland only took a little over an hour.  Once we arrived in Portland we went to the Pearl District to explore for a couple of hours.  We hit a couple of the big tourist spots, Powell's Books and Voodoo Donut, ate lunch at one of the food truck parks and explored a couple of the parks.  We weren't in town long enough for me to form much of an opinion on the place.  It reminded me a lot of Asheville, NC, only much larger.  It sure would be nice to live in a large urban area and have an amenity like Mt Hood so close by!

Off to the Olympic Peninsula...

Mt. Rainier National Park

After coming down off of Cascade Pass, we immediately started south towards Mt Rainier National Park.  The drive from North Cascades, back through Seattle, to the White River Campground on the east side of Mt Rainier took us about four hours.  We were greeted with much different weather...cold and a light sleet as we were setting up camp for the night.  Luckily, we were able to buy some firewood and got a nice campfire started as the sun went down to stay warm.  Wednesday morning we woke up to near perfect weather, blue skies over Mt Rainier.  From our campsite, we decided to hike into Glacier Basin.  The trail followed the White River towards Mt Rainier.  The contrast of the white glaciers against the blue skies and surrounding evergreens was a beautiful sight.  After about 3 miles and an 1800' climb we arrived in Glacier Basin and of course had to plant the Vols flag...

After our hike to Glacier Basin we got packed up at camp and headed for the south side of the mountain to do a tourist visit of the rest of the National Park before continuing south towards Oregon.  Incredibly, the weather changed almost immediately as we drove around the southern edge of Mt Rainier.  The blue skies turned overcast and then a light drizzle.  Our first stop was at the Paradise Valley visitors center.  This is typically where Mt Rainier climbers base from.  Paradise Inn is also here. Usually you can get great views of Rainier with very little effort from the Inn but no such luck for us.  After picking up a couple souvenirs we continued on our way.  We made stops at Narada Falls and Christine Falls on our way out of the park.

Leaving Mt Rainier National Park we took a beautiful drive through Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the South Cascades.  About an hour into our drive we lucked into a turnoff for Mt. St Helens.  We didn't originally plan on seeing St Helens in an effort to get closer to Oregon for the night but we couldn't pass it up.  The drive into St Helens Volcanic Monument was pretty surreal.  The aftermath of the eruption is still very visible.  It was really cool to learn about the history of the volcano and the destruction and now the regeneration of the landscape.  After spending a little bit of time at Windy Ridge, we continued south towards Oregon.

North Cascades

Abe and I got to take an incredible trip to the Pacific Northwest at the beginning of the month.  We had been planning a trip to Washington and Oregon since the spring.  Labor Day weekend finally arrived and we were off to Seattle for a week of hiking, camping, backpacking and soaking in the incredible landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.

We flew into Seattle from Atlanta and Dallas the Sunday morning before Labor Day.  After a few quick stops in Seattle to load up on groceries and some gear that the TSA didn't deem appropriate to bring on an airplane we were headed north to North Cascades National Park.  It immediately became clear that Washington state was unlike anywhere I had ever been before.  The combination of mountains and endless water made for beautiful scenes around every corner.  The Evergreen State is exactly that.

We got to the North Cascades late afternoon.  After a quick stop at the ranger station for some hike recommendations, we settled in at Marble Creek Campground for the night.

Monday morning we headed to Hidden Lake Lookout trailhead for our first hike.  After navigating some challenging roads, we made it to the trailhead.  The hike was 8 miles round trip and climbed 3,300' from the trailhead to the lookout tower high above Hidden Lake.  The hike started out in dense forest before opening up into a deep creek drainage with views to the valley below.  After a couple miles the surroundings change dramatically from subalpine meadows to bare granite.  After navigating some late summer snow patches we reached a high saddle and Hidden Lake came into view.  We were really lucky and got mostly clear views to the surrounding giants of the North Cascades.  Breathtaking scenery.  After a quick lunch, we climbed through the boulders up to the Lookout Tower at the summit.  Perfect first hike.

We had originally planned to do a backpack into a primitive camp near Cascade Pass Monday night but our trip up to Hidden Lake took us a little longer than we expected.  With altered plans we set up the tent Mineral Basin for the night.  We headed up to Cascade Pass Tuesday morning.  The weather was much more overcast than the day before.  When we arrived at the trailhead, we were literally in the clouds.  Couldn't see a thing.  As we began to climb the switchbacks the clouds quickly began to move out and the views opened up. Stunning again.  Glaciers, granite, subalpine meadow, endless forests of evergreen.  Although the clouds covered some views they created a wonderful sense of place.  This felt like the Pacific Northwest that I always imagined.