Salt Water Park

It was a beautiful day for the park.  The sun came out later in the day for us and we actually go a tiny bit sunburned. 

Snowqualmie Falls

They are really fixing this area up.  Right now you can't hike down to the base, but once they finish in 2013, you will have a bigger and better area according to the drawings.  But this one is for Judy.  I took a little video of the falls so you may watch it over and over! 

Granite Mountain Lookout

This was by far the best hike we have been on this season. I look forward to returning next year when the flowers are more in bloom. It was a rough one, but very rewarding and very beautiful. I am not having the muscle pain and soreness that I had with Mount Si. This is what the Washington Trail Association said about this trail. I was very nervous, but pleased that we dared to go. It think it kept many hikers away as it was very quiet and those who were on the trail followed the rules of etiquette.

One look at the parking lot midday on any summer weekend, and the obvious will jump out and bite you: the Granite Mountain Trail is the most heavily traveled summit path in the Snoqualmie Pass corridor. Of course, there is a good reason for that: it's spectacular. But it's also steep. Mind numbingly, thigh-burning steep. You'll climb a heel-blistering 3800 feet in 4.3 miles to an old fire lookout at the 5600-foot summit, with awesome views in all directions. Pack plenty of water, as there is no good source along the trail.

Animal Friends

Well, with all the blueberries in the meadows near the top becoming ripe there have been lots of bear sightings. We got there too late to see the mama bear and her 2 cubs having breakfast. Terah was happy about that, but I was disappointed. We did see a deer with her two young ones, a few chipmunks that chewed us out for taking their pictures, ravens, and some creepy crawlies.

Along The Trail

Well this was a tough climb and we really felt like mountain goats. It was thigh burning, heart pounding, heal blistering work, but the pay off was worth it. Not to mention all those calories we were burning up!

At The Top

The camera really can't capture what we saw. There was a volunteer forest ranger spending his long weekend up in the tower with his two kids. He kindly let us hikers into the fire tower to warm up (it was pretty windy up there) and he told us all about the tower, how they used to call in the fires, and we all chatted about our favorite hikes.

Relief!

I was so glad to see this marker. This was the proof that we only had 1 mile to go and only 800 feet in elevation. It was far less of an incline and it made my knees almost jump for joy...if they weren't numb they would have.

Wild Flowers

We missed most of the wild flowers, but intend to return next August when they are in full bloom. It's supposed to be very fragrant.