Sol Duc Camping and Cape Flattery

The weekend after our Elwah camping trip we went again to meet some of Marty's family along the Sol Duc River. The majority of my photos from that weekend are from our day trip up to Cape Flattery - the NW-most point in the lower 48.
There's an island with a lighthouse off the point.
The water color was a beautiful blue.
Kelsi and Marty admiring the caves.
We then drove around the Makah Reservation to a beach for the girls to play on. They immediately went running after all the seagulls. Bekah's in the red sweatshirt.
Kimberly's wearing the #8 Husky jersey.

Then it was time to play in the water!
Seaweed!
Bekah
Kimberly
After all the camping fun, we had one last stop along the Sol Duc River on our way home. Kelsi with the river.
Kimberly's looking at YOU!

Camping along the Elwah River

We took the girls camping for the first time back in early August to see how they did with sleeping in a tent. We chose the Elwah River Valley since it's the last summer before they start removing the dams. Bekah's in the green on the ferry leaving Seattle - headed for the Olympic Peninsula.
Near our camp was the short trail to Madison Falls, so off we went!
Kimberly liked helping Daddy with getting logs for the campfire.
The girls with the tent!
Shortly after the campsite photos were taken, Daddy sliced his finger and we took him to the ER to get stitches (five, in fact). While we were waiting for him, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge to see the views.
Kimberly chilling in the car waiting for Daddy to get his stitches.
The next morning we went on a hike together to Goblin's Gulch. Bekah loves those poles!
Daddy showing off his wrapped up finger. (Pointer finger!)
We then left Daddy at the trailhead to hike up to Hurricane Ridge and we broke down camp and drove around to meet him. This was one of his views along the way.

Heather Lake

Today's hike was up in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest going to Heather Lake. It's 2 miles up to the lake and there is a lot of water coming down from Mount Pilchuck and the whole mountain side making for lots of water on the trail and lots of snow in the higher elevations. The upper part of the trail had old-growth cedars, so there are some BIG trees up there. The lake was still partially frozen over and we even heard a small avalanche coming down off of Mount Pilchuck just as we were arriving at the lake. The girls were in the packs a bit more today, but that was mostly because of the terrain - there were some big, slippery steps to take. Without the snow, you can make a loop around the lake that's just over half a mile, but that wasn't going to happen today! Since it's an out-and-back trail, there's no photos on the "down" since it was all the same sights. Kelsi missed out since she was in school, but we have a lot more planned that she'll be dragged on!

Photos

Big Creek Loop Trail No. 827-1

We thought it would be fun to get some more spring hikes done since the weather has been fairly cooperative. For this Sunday hike, we went for the East Olympics and the Big Creek Loop trail near Lake Cushman and Hoodsport off the 101. The total loop is 4.7 miles with quite a few creek crossings which were in full flow with spring run-off from Mount Ellinor and Mount Washington above. The girls had a great time - Bekah did fall asleep in Marty's pack for a little while, but Kimberly was a trooper and walked more than half the hike. It's fun to have them so excited about hiking.

Photos

Preston-Snoqualmie Trail - Snoqualmie Falls Overlook

We took the girls on their first spring hike to see Snoqualmie Falls from the west side rather than the (very) popular east side. We took the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail from the Lake Alice Road trailhead to the overlook and back which is 3.7 miles round trip. The girls did very well and were in packs over half the time to give Mom and Dad a good warm up to get used to heavy, squirming packs again. They're getting tall enough at this point that this will be the last summer for packs, but that makes sense as they're now 3-1/2 years old!

Photos

Spring Hiking - Mount Walker

It's hard to call hiking in February "spring hiking," but Western Washington has not gotten much snow this year, so it really is spring weather around here. Marty and I had a day to ourselves in late-February, so we went over to Quilcene and hiked Mount Walker. It's 5 miles roundtrip with a 2,000-ft elevation gain in the first 2 miles. The two peaks had tremendous views west to the Olympics and east to Seattle.

Photos

Fall Hiking Recap

To extend the hiking usefulness of this blog, I thought I'd go back and recap the hikes we did in September and October of 2009 before jumping into what we're doing in 2010.

We had a few more Olympic Peninsula hiking weekends. In mid-September we base camped in Port Angeles and hiked Hurricane Hill on Friday - 3.5 miles round trip, moderately difficult with the girls in backpacks. Saturday we joined up with Aunts Clare, Jack, and Beth to do the Little Divide Loop that took us 11.5 miles, ending at the Sol Duc Falls. On Sunday we took Aunt Beth and the girls up to hike the Mount Angeles Saddle off of Hurricane Ridge. We only went about 3 miles roundtrip before heading back home again.
September - Olympic Peninsula Photos

The first weekend in October we took advantage of the weather and hiked Colonel Bob from the Pete's Creek Trailhead with Aunts Beth and Jack. It's a pretty tough 8.2 mile roundtrip trek, but the views from the top are spectacular.

Marty and I also did a few hikes a little closer to home in September - Lake Melakwa, a 9 mile roundtrip hike up past the Denny Creek waterfalls to an alpine lake. It was foggy the day we went, so there wasn't much lake to see, but the hike was still a good challenge. I also got to hike to the top of Mt. Si for the first time in September, so that was nice to check off my "to hike" list. It's 8 miles roundtrip with almost 4,000-ft elevation gain.

I'll try to get some more photos posted soon.