Sun Mountain

I had a neat opportunity to spend two and half days on the hill above Winthrop last week. The weather was mixed with alternating rain and sun. They arrived together at sunrise on Monday morning with a spectacular double rainbow that lasted for fifteen minutes.

The drive over, and the Monday field trip, offered some impressive views of the areas burned through by the big fire this summer.

Most of our time was reserved for work, but I managed to get in a bike ride late Tuesday afternoon.

Lake Chelan

As far as I can recall, I had never been to Lake Chelan, except perhaps on a quick drive through the town years ago. I guess my vision of the south end of the lake was a kind of development we don't really relate to - waterfront homes, jet skis, and flammable hillsides.  The north end has always been more appealing, but we've never managed to arrange the boat trip.

I had several hours of pretty nice weather to explore the lake shore as far up each side as I could reasonable access by car.  For me, it was a chance to collect some new beaches, albeit on a lake whose geology and shorelines I don't understand well.

Lincoln Rock

I didn't get out of town until 3:00 on Saturday afternoon and traffic was slow until Issaquah, but I made it to Wenatchee by 6:00 or had enough light to set up camp at Lincoln Rock State Park. The loop was almost empty, but I still had to shell out the weekend rate for a premium site. On the other hand, my room had a nice view up the river and the weather stayed dry. My campsite even had its own beach.

Getting over here Saturday night was a good way to assure a full day of exploring on Sunday.  The photo below was taken the next morning from the other (west) side of the river - the campground is on the left (east) bank.

Seattle

Normally, we return from the Olympic Peninsula via the Kingston ferry, but Sunday we decided that we should take advantage of the gorgeous afternoon and come back into Elliott Bay from Bainbridge Island. Which was a great choice. Enough to even make long-timers like us feel like tourists.

Hurricane Ridge

Sunday was a spectacular day, and not just because it began with Eggs Benedict and berry cobbler french toast.  I don't know when we were last up to Hurricane Ridge, but it had been a long time (more than a decade) and I can't recall ever being up here when it was so perfect. I guess this is why people always bring out of town guests up here. We stuck pretty close to the parking lot, since I'm still nursing a sore foot (and because we were still so stuffed from breakfast, I suppose).

Afterwards, we headed back down the hill and out to the west side of the Elwha River Delta - a delta that's growing by leaps and bounds now that the dams are both gone. I guess that will deserve a post over on the other blog.

Port Angeles

We weren't really sure what we were going to do this past weekend, but we were pretty sure we wanted to do something. We figured it out Saturday morning and headed off for the Peninsula around noon.  We spent Saturday night in Port Angeles, which was just enough time to have a great Thai dinner at Sabai and a great breakfast at the Chestnut Cottage.

We spent a little time at the waterfront before dinner on Saturday, then I came back down very early Sunday morning in time to catch the sun soon after it rose (not all that early this time of year).