Monday, April 19, 2010

Ice Caves - April 2010


Sunday turned out to be a nice day, so we headed over to the Granite Falls area to check out the ice cave. This was our second visit to the area (last visit the end of August in 2009) and here is a link to that post if you want to check it out. http://dwayneworld.blogspot.com/2009/08/big-4-ice-caves.html


This visit, no caves yet! Too early in the year for the unusual runoff of mountain snow to melt enough of the glacier ice to form the caves. Still a great visit and always nice to get out among the Cascades! Here you can see the parking area where a number of people were having picnics.

The bridge of doom, from Bogies perspective. Evidently this bridge plays tricks on Bogies eyes and he cannot see the shiny metal footings, only the raging water below. It is sad to watch him struggle one paw at a time but I try to hide it by giggling like a school girl. In my defense, it is funny as hell to watch him make the trek!



Here are some snap on the short journey to where the caves will eventually appear. A tree that has seen better days, a skunk cabbage about to blossom (stinky!) and some avalanche damage from a couple years ago.




Although no ice caves, plenty of snow to enjoy. You can see some of the many waterfalls coming down the mountain side in one of these pictures.

Finishing this out with some classic mountain shots.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Back To Heybrook Tower (April 2010)


Sun was out a bit yesterday, so decided to do quick hike to Heybrook Tower off of Route 2. These pictures are new as of yesterday.



This is my second visit to the tower and here is a link to the posting I did about Heybrook Tower back in June of 2008. ( http://tinyurl.com/y4xzys3 )

The surrounding mountains are quite beautiful to view for a very conservative hike.






The the tower is quite neat to explore.




Going back to the parking lot. A short but very nice little excursion for the day.