I love it when my guests go up to The Mountain, or out to an island on one of our ferries.  The Pacific Northwest is so blessed with natural beauty.

This summer has been spectacular, and I wanted to share a couple of glorious hikes I did.  The first was on the northwest flank of  The Mountain – Mt Rainier – to Spray Park.

It’s just a 2-hour drive to the trailhead at Mowich Lake – then about 4 miles of hiking along a pleasant forest trail.  Even in this dry year, moisture weeps in shady spots.

Then you suddenly break out into the park. “Parks” on the mountain are wide-open spaces just below treeline where glaciers have recently retreated.  There, the lupines, Indian paint brush, and several other wildflowers whose names I don’t know, greet you with their short-lived frivolity.

On another day, I went a bit farther, up north to Cascade Pass off Highway 20.  These mountains are even more rugged – sharp peaks, steep slopes, glacial cirques everywhere.

A friend and I drove up to Marblemount on the Skagit River and stayed in a rustic cabin the night before, expecting a tough hike up to the pass.  I’m sitting on the pass there,  with Sahale Arm in the background.

But that part was actually pretty easy.  If we’d gone up to Sahale Arm, that would have been really strenuous.  As it was, we did the steep switchbacks at the beginning, but then at 3:00 we figured we should turn around so as not to get caught by the now-shorter August days.

Thanks for sharing these two wonderful mountain experiences with me.