Beauty of Northwest Wilderness

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Trip to Lake Wenatchee State Park

Falls color trip to Lake Wenatchee

Central Cascade is one of the beautiful places to enjoy the Fall colors in Washington state. You can enjoy the beautiful rivers, mountains, and lots of farmlands along the trip.

Cle Elum

Cle Elum is a small town about one hour and half away from Seattle. There are lots of camping and outdoor activities there. Its population is about 2000.

Yakima river flows through Cle Elum, and all the way east, and eventually flows into Columbia river near Tri-cities..

In Autumn season, the colors along Yakima river is very beautiful. You can stop by Cle Elum and find some city park to enjoy the river.

Fall colors along Yakima river near Cle Elum

Yakima Canyon

A beautiful trek along Yakima river

Fall colors along Yakima river

Camping

Camps at Lake Wanatchee State Park

Views in Lake Wenatchee

Surrendering beside Lake Wanatchee

Falls colors in Tumwater Canyon

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Padilla Bay Trail

Padilla Bay

Padilla Bay is located where the Skagit River meets the Salish Sea. It has very extensive eelgrass beds on the west coast, second to Izembek Lagoon. The eelgrass (鳗草) is a kind of saltwater plant, which grows in shallow estuaries (入海口). It's an important native grass harboring small salmon, crab, and other invertebrates that, in turn are food for the eagles, herons, otters and seals.

Brant are small, stocky geese with black heads and necks. They have a white ring around the neck and are distinctly white underneath the tail. The eelgrass is their primary source of food and freshwater. So every year Brant will migrate from come to visit it.

Brant (https://www.allaboutbirds.org)

Padilla Bay Trail

This is 4.4 mile round trip tail. This hike can be enjoyed by almost anyone in any season. It is also a very trail to watch birds! Before you start, be sure to check out the large tree on the road to the trail head, there is a pair of bald eagles that sometimes hang out here.

Padilla Bay Trail

The name Padilla--which means 'breadpan' in Spanish--was given to the bay by early Spanish explorers, although native people had long taken advantage of the natural abundance of food found here. One of the first features you see as you start your walk is an oft-photographed old barn with some rusting equipment lying about in the mud. This is a remnant of one of the so called ‘stump farms’, land purchased cheaply after the area was logged in the early 1900s then converted to farming. Much as you may wish to explore the old barn, the timbers are rotten and the barn best left to the swallows. Great blue herons can frequently be seen hunting in the muck around the barn, maybe one will pose for you as you take your barn picture. [1]

Padilla Bay Trail

Padilla Bay Trail facing the south

Padilla Bay Trail

Enjoyed the view and bird watching on Padilla Bay Trail

Northwest view from Padilla Bay Trail

South west view on Padilla Bay Trail

West view on Padilla Bay Trail (Mt Erie on the left)

Great blue heron on Padilla Bay Trail

References:

[1] https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/padilla-bay

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Revisit Mash Island Seattle

Marsh Island is on the north end of the Washington Arboretum. The Arboretum's Waterfront Trail can lead you to Marsh and Foster Islands.

I visited it in the early Autumn. Yesterday, I took that trail again, but arrived at West Montlake Park, wanted to see the remaining Fall colors over the water with my 35mm Lens.

3 miles trail from WA Park to West Montlake Park through Marsh Island

Fall colors are still visible on the trail

Fall colors along the trail to Foster island

There are a couple hundreds feet of floating bridge that connects Foster island and East Montlake Park through Marsh island. Its surrendering views are pretty awesome in the nice day. Here you can see the bridge, union bay and the stadium of the University of Washington (UW).

Floating bridge over the bay with the UW stadium in view on front

Early morning it's good time to spend for few hours bird watching. Usually there are eagle, heron, geese and ducks wandering in this area. Today I noticed one heron stayed on the wood stick. I regretted not bring my Tele-lens to catch a nicer picture.

A heron enjoyed the view of the Marsh Island

From the end of the Marsh island, you can walk along the Montlake Cut on Arboretum Waterfront Trail to cross Montlake Bridge and arrive at the West Montlake Park. Here is one capture from its north east corner:

Montlake Cut and Montlake Bridge on the West Montlake Park

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Trip to Winthrop WA

Introduction

Winthrop is a small western-themed town on east of Washington state, on State Highway 20. It's just on the east of North Cascade National Park. It's on the east of Mazama and north of Twisp.

Winthrop is known for the American Old West design of all the building in town. It is popular cross-country skiing, rock climbing. hiking. mountain biking, river rafting, horse-back riding, and etc.

Trip from Seattle to Winthrop

I have planned this trip for a while. Fall and winter are the good seasons to enjoy the colors and winter scenes. But I picked up the Labor Day long weekend to pay the first visit. I started from Seattle, took I-90 Highway, and backed from State Highway 20, I-5 Highway. During 13 hours' trip, I stopped on few points to either have lunch, or had short time breaks.