Beautiful ranger station, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933.
This little ranger station on the approach to MANY trails on Mt. Baker and other mountains in the Cascades had the most beautiful stone-work and woodwork detail. Even though it’s been 80 years since President Roosevelt put young men to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps, you can still see their handiwork throughout the United States. Clicking on the link will open a new page in your browser to read about the 3 million young men who helped build and reforest our national parks, battlefields, roads, etc. for $30 a month (sent $25 home and kept only $5).
While staying with my friends Laurie and Kevin, we had waited three days for the weather to clear and decided to chance a hike even though it was cloudy and spitting rain. All of the hikes in Washington were in moist air with lots of greenery around.
Beautiful Lupines, White Indian Paintbrush.
The climb up the mountain was steep and fast. My hair was completely drenched from sweat when we took a break for lunch under some trees (spitting rain again).
Damp moss and wet jeweled cobwebs.The sun is trying to pop through occasionally.It stopped raining by the time lunch was over, we are nearing the top of the divide. Clouds are still hanging around.
The pinkish color in the far valley is the glow from heather (close-up photo).Beautiful emerald meadows and heather and clouds. We are still on our way to the ridge.Clouds are now covering what was clear just a couple of minutes before.Hot, humid, rainy, but you can see by our smiles, we’re still loving getting those endorphins going.Last bit of snow
After seeing the snow, the clouds wrapped themselves around us and we could not see anything but gray. Not really wanting to get lost in the clouds, we turned around and started back down the darkening trail even though it’s only 3 in the afternoon.
But before leaving: check out these beautiful Pacific Northwest wildflowers that called for a photograph or three.
Raining now, Orchid? (My flower ID book is not with me).Campanula?Indian PaintbrushFog and Trees, two of my favorite things.This was why we decided to come back down from the top as soon as we got up there, we almost needed our headlamps to see the trail.Clouds are closing in. These are not flat trails, my friends are steeply downhill from where I was taking the photo – even though it looks flat.All the creeks and rivers are gray from glacier melt and minerals and yes, it was a gray day causing gray reflections.
Stay tuned for another hike in the Cascades. Feel free to comment, I love getting feedback.
Was enjoying photography and retirement until my youngest son contracted Valley Fever while working. Now, I haven’t written any posts or taken many photos (very few anyway). I struggle with remembering all my settings since not using them. There are plans afoot to start my blog again.
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9 Replies to “Hiking the Washington Cascades, Mt. Baker, Skyline Divide”
What a nice change from our So Cal heatwave!!! Amazing! I think this hike needs to be on my bucket list.
Beautiful photos. What a gorgeous place. I love the moss with the spider web. It gives me such a peaceful feeling looking at the beautiful nature scenes.
Thanks Diane-I have actually thought about it, but that’s about as far as it goes right now! I’m so glad to have the opportunity to hike and see the mountaintops!
I am a man who believes romance should never die, movies make for a great night, custom suiting is a must and creating a legacy is one's purpose. A man who holds true to this understands the gentleman's lifestyle.
from egghill 
What a nice change from our So Cal heatwave!!! Amazing! I think this hike needs to be on my bucket list.
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Thanks Carol, I will be posting two more hikes from there, it is beautiful, you must go!
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Beautiful photos. What a gorgeous place. I love the moss with the spider web. It gives me such a peaceful feeling looking at the beautiful nature scenes.
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Thanks Deborah, it is peaceful. So peaceful, I often just want to stay there (except there are bears around).
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I love the moss and web too. I wish I’d had a ladder to get closer! We had stopped for lunch and the mountain was very steep.
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It was a good shot. It looked close.
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You should do a book Barb! It’s amazing what you have done. So proud of you.
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Thanks Diane-I have actually thought about it, but that’s about as far as it goes right now! I’m so glad to have the opportunity to hike and see the mountaintops!
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Diane, I had replied once, but WordPress tells me I didn’t, thanks so much. I have thought about travel magazines and briefly a book – I’ll see . . .
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