Even before we started this crazy trip, I’d heard that northern Washington was supposed to be one of the most beautiful parts of the entire trail. Today, I believe it. We’ve entered the North Cascades, and the mountains around here are astounding. I feel like I’m far from any place I’ve ever known, and it’s kind of amazing.
Above all, it’s the colors that really blow you away around here. The mountains manage to be this incredible mix of red, orange, gold, and deep green hues, all at once. The weather, which remains cloudy and occasionally rainy, adds a whole dramatic layer of clouds on top of all of that. Today, we were lucky enough that it didn’t rain (except at night, after we’d crawled into our tent) and so we got a chance to see a lot more of it than we did yesterday. The weather also changed impressively, from overcast skies to a blue sky with white clouds (before, of course, changing back to overcast).
We also saw another volcanic mountain today — this one Glacier Peak, which seems to be aptly named, as there are over a dozen glaciers filling every valley coming off its peak. Really, it’s only the photos included here that can truly do today justice; trying to describe it all in words just ends up seeming both hyperbolic and futile at the same time.
We continue to make progress on our second-to-last segment of the entire trip, which, at 108 miles, is one of the very longest. Honestly, as much as I look forward to being done with this trip and being back in the comforts of society…I feel very lucky to be able to see all of the amazing things we saw today. Take a look at all those photos!
[alpine-phototile-for-flickr src=”set” uid=”44265343@N00″ sid=”72157657054370653″ imgl=”flickr” style=”gallery” row=”5″ grwidth=”800″ grheight=”600″ size=”500″ num=”30″ shadow=”1″ border=”1″ align=”center” max=”100″]
Leave a Reply