Where the Wildflowers Grow

Yellow are Balsamroot, purple are Lupine, and white are Phlox

Location: Horse Lake Reserve in Wenatchee, WA
Date Hiked: Saturday May 13, 2017
Miles hiked: Less than 5 miles
Difficulty: Easy

This past weekend, I left the planning to Katherine and she brought us out to Wenatchee to chase Lupine, Balsamroot, Phlox, Brodiaea, and a handful of other wildflowers we couldn't name. Cody and I were looking for a mellow weekend since we are leaving for a big trip in a week, and so a romp in the foothills of Wenatchee sounded perfect to us! The drive time R/T was 6 hours, so we still had a pretty long day, but at least it wasn't too strenuous.

We left Seattle around 8 am and got to the trailhead around 11 am, the last 3 miles of the drive is dirt road, which is suitable for small cars, just drive slow lol. I have always found land trusts to be special places, and Horse Lake Reserve is actually located on the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, meaning it's protected land. When we hit the trail, it was raining and very cold, we were all pretty miserable. But as the day went on the weather got better and the sun even came out! There are some flowers at the beginning of the trail, but it gets better the further you go into the foothills. Fields upon fields of yellow, white, and purple wildflowers! I have never seen anything like it before!

This area seemed to be a popular mountain biking area. We didn't pass that many people on the trail which was nice, but when we did pass people they were mostly mountain bikers. Because of the bikers though, the trails are a little rougher than normal, and a lot narrower of paths.

Very thankful Katherine was with us, because I learned so much this weekend! She knew a lot of the names of the wildflowers since her old pops taught her. Thanks Katherine!

We ended the day in Leavenworth, with burgers and beer on the patio. The weekend's weather forecast wasn't looking too great, but turned out for the better. It definitely felt like spring.

Until next time Wenatchee!

Water droplets on my lens, smiles even with cold and rain!

 The sun came out!

 Always entertaining with the K/Catherine's!

 Where the wildflowers grow

 What are the girls up to?

 The most people we ran into were mountain bikers

 What girls do in nature #photoshoot

Thanks for the flower lesson Katherine!

Information:)

Yurtastic Weekend at Seaquest

Everything's more magical if located in a forest right?

Dates glamped: April 8-9, 2017
Location: Castle Rock,WA Seaquest State Park (about 2.5 hrs south of Seattle)
Rented: 2 Yurts (sleeps 5 each)
Off-season cost: $74/night

Just a quick write up about my birthday weekend.

I had been eyeing booking yurts in Washington since January. There's actually a number of state parks that offer yurts, cabins, and what they like to call "rustic shelters" for rent (tipis and what not). They have off season and peak season prices. Having been unsure how fast yurts book up during off season, I started looking early just in case. I ended up settling booking yurts at Seaquest State Park. They have a total of 5 yurts here. All of them were booked last weekend, but it didn't seem they went too fast because it looked like there was still availability 2 weeks prior (I had booked the yurts by mid-February).

Anyways, our yurts included heat and electricity, a futon that slept two, and a bunk bed that slept 3, so 5 total. The yurts are pretty simple, not much fuss to them. In between the 2 yurts we booked was also a covered picnic area, which came in handy when it started raining and hailing lol. Each yurt also has their own fire pit.

9 of us stayed the night in the yurts. We ate snacks, drank sangria, cooked dinner over the fire pit, and just relaxed and enjoyed each others company throughout the evening. I would definitely do something like this again! Maybe next time I'll book one of them "rustic shelters" at another state park:)

Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend! Jaclyn, Bryan, Catherine, Catherine, Katherine, Sarina, Ryan, Paul, Cody, and Euzel!

Until next time Castle Rock!

Here's the link if you want to check out the other places you can rent:
 http://parks.state.wa.us/403/Cabins-Rustic-Shelters-Yurts

Nature Trail next to the Mt St Helens Visitor Center

 Yurt #2

 Inside of the yurt

Glamping

 Thank you for the birthday cupcakes and everything else Sarina!

Boys being boys

Repeat: Ancient Lakes

A little bushwhacking in the canyon

 

Ryan lugging out wood!

 Easy 2 mile hike out to the lakes

Tent Views

Tent shots are my favorite!

Location: Ancient Lakes in Quincy, WA (Central Washington)
Dates backpacked: April 1-2, 2017
Miles hiked: 7 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Permits: no permits needed, only need a Discovery Pass
Water: you have to carry it out, the lakes are not drinkable (for a 1 nighter, I carried out 4-5 liters)

We did the same backpacking trip around this time last year. We had such fond memories of the good weather and unique terrain, we headed back out there again this year! The weather is a lot better east of the mountains this time of the year, with Seattle still being in full gloom, we wanted some sunshine in our life!

We headed out with a larger group this year, last year was a head count of 4, this year was a head count of 8 people + 3 pups! We also learned our lesson last year, there wasn't much to forage for a decent fire, which had only last us 30 min. So this year, we each carried out a log of wood so that our fire would last all night, which worked out great!

Sarina, Ryan, Catherine, Cody, and I got to the trail head first. The others trickled in through out the day and met us. It's an easy 2 miles hike out to the lakes. We found a spot big enough for 5 tents and posted up near the lakes. The weather was perfect again this year! We setup camp, ate lunch, and hiked around during the day. At night we built a fire, made dinner, and had some s'mores to end the night.

Following morning was a quick breakfast, packed up, and hiked out by 10 am. It's about a 2.5-3 hour drive from Seattle, so it was nice to head back early to wind down from the weekend adventure.

Overall, it was an awesome time with everyone! Kudos to Caitlin for trekking out with us at 7 months pregnant! The 3 dogs got a long just fine, and there were no big mishaps. Another great weekend to add to the books.

Until next time Quincy!

The 2nd waterfall

Climbing up the side of the waterfall

I wonder what it was like 1000 years ago

How much wood could we lug out? And how dope of a fire can we build?

 The Hillenbrand's! 

 The Clark's!

 Girl Squad for the weekend

His first time to Ancient Lakes!

Central Washington

 Colorful skies are the best!

Fires going and dinner preppin'

Our Journey to Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery

Snow Camping 101 - Mt. Rainier Edition

Mt Rainier in all it's glory 

Joshua Tree National Park

That's a Joshua Tree

NYE Weekend in AZ

Horseshoe Bend 

In Search of Snow: Lake Valhalla

 Trailhead Parking Lot

Destination: Diablo Lake

Goodell Creek Campground Site #21

Crabs, Shrimp, & Clams on Lopez Island

This past weekend, I took a break from hiking and decided to go visit my aunt and uncle who live on Lopez Island. We enjoyed boat rides, loads of seafood, and got to car camp

Ferry Ride

Cody and I took a ferry from Anacortes to Lopez Island. These ferries are big enough to load 100+ cars onto. I made a reservation for my car ahead of time on the transportation website so I was guaranteed a spot for my car. Last time I didn't make a reservation, my friends and I ended up waiting at the ferry terminal for 3 hours.... Oops! lol. 

After the ferry ride, we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house. We caught up with them, had lunch, and then headed out on their boat to check the shrimp traps they had put out. 

Boat Ride

Crabbing, shrimping, and clam digging seem to be a big part of my aunt and uncle's life, which is totally awesome. After checking the traps, we came back with some shrimp and a rock crab. Since crabbing season just finished that Friday September 30th, they didn't have any crab traps out. But that last day of crabbing season, my aunt & uncle did catch 18 dungeness crabs. So we got plenty of fresh crab to eat for dinner that night! Plus some. 

Car Camping

That night we camped at Odlin County Park. I booked a site online prior, but it wasn't very busy so there were plenty of walk up sites available (Also remember that it's October though). The park has drive up sites and also hiker/biker sites, in which if you visited without a car, you can try to snag one of these. Our site was right next to the water, a couple of other sites had beach access, pretty neat campground. 

It was a short trip, and we took the early ferry out the next morning. But we will be back soon though! Need to explore the island more. 

Until next time Lopez Island!

Always going somewhere