My Sunday

So, what did you do this weekend? Myself, I didn't do that much - just took a 16 hour trip on Sunday, driving 330 miles and taking 550 photos. Very much to the dismay of my orphaned cat.
(For those not keeping track, that's more photos than I took on my entire Vegas vacation!)
I know, I can hardly believe I did it either. I must be posessed because this is not the Angela I know. I'm beginning to love sun-up to sun-down daytrip adventures. The plan was to drive out to Snoqualmie Falls, 35 miles or so, spend a couple of hours there and drive back. I spent a few hours there, but I didn't drive back. It was too beautiful outside to go home - can you blame me?! My cat can, and does. So here's how it went down, I went to bed at midnight, got up at 5am, and hit the road.

Washington in the early morning. There's really nothing special about this picture, I just wanted to show a typical view out here. (I like the bird flying overhead). Yes, I'm aware that photographing while driving is dangerous but my tripod was seated right next to me so it was very easy and there were virtually no other cars on the road so early in the morning, if that makes you feel any better.
On the way to the falls I spotted two deer grazing alongside the road.



They are heading to Seattle apparently.

I arrived at the falls around 7am. It turned out to be a beautiful day weather-wise, just as I had hoped. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Snoqualmie Falls Park.







Lots of pretty scenery at the falls











Garter snake sunning himself. If you click to enlarge you will see his tongue is out :p

This wide-angle shot is the so-called "money shot" of the falls but unfortunately the rainbow could not be seen from this angle. The building on the left is the Salish Lodge and it's very nice.

I love trees and the trees up here grow strangely compared to those in Minnesota. It's quite beautiful.



Taken from the lower observation deck. The 1/2 mile hike back up the steep incline was a good workout for me. Good thing I wore my new hiking shoes with good traction.

Tada! My new hiking shoes. I luv them!

Play the video to see the waterfall in action

I left the falls around 10:30, grabbed some food and could NOT bring myself to drive home. So I impulsively drove down to Mt. Rainier National Park and boy am I glad I did. My first visit to the park sucked compared to this one (with the exception of spending time with Julian) This time I got to see a lot, lot more. The weather was perfect and the views just kept getting better and better as I drove up the mountain road. The phrase repeated aloud was "Are you kidding me?!" each time I saw something spectacular. It was a phenomenal experience for me. I saw a ton of wildlife and great mountain views. Here are just a few of my favorite photos.

The photo above was taken on my way to the park.

The photos below were taken inside Mt. Rainier National Park.


I didn't do a thing to this photo, that is truly the color of Kautz Creek and the dry bed around it.

I like to call this next series of photos "Zooming in on Mt. Rainier"



This little bird was pretty but I wanted to ring it's little neck because it wouldn't stay still so I could take its picture. Oh the nerve! The photo was taken at the National Park Inn where Julian and I stayed and where I have reservations for later this year. I'm quite enraptured by Mt. Rainier if you can't tell. I'll be getting my money's worth and then some on my annual pass.

It was a different story with this little fella below who gladly posed for his close-up. Actually he scared the crap out of me at first. I opened my car door and was getting out, camera in hand, when I saw something flapping toward me. I wasn't sure if he was trying to land or about to claw my eyes out. At first I thought he was deranged. But as he sat there staring at me with a "Aren't you going to feed me, Dummy?" look on his face I realized that wasn't the case. Someone must have been feeding this little guy. Not a good idea to feed the wildlife. As a rule I try to keep my distance. He gave up and flew away when he realized I wasn't good for anything except taking his picture. He's awful cute huh.

Below, (drumroll) is the grand finale of Mt. Rainier, complete with video of an amazing view.






It must have been 7:30pm or so when I left the park. Once I got outside the park, I continued to see wildlife. I must have seen a total of 50 different deer throughout the course of the day. Just outside the park they travel in groups of about 10. The deer below is alert because 5 of her friends are sprinting towards her. They all ended up taking off which is odd since they are not very afraid of humans or cars.

As I got a little farther down the road I discovered why they ran.

Did this little guy really think he was going to have venison for dinner?
Silly coyote, the roadrunner always wins :)


Here are some elk just taking it easy. They have no clue how awesome the view is from where they are do they?

Wrapping it up, these were my final shots, just taken along the road somewhere. I tried in vain to get a sunset photo - it was a pretty sunset. When the sun dipped below the treeline the evergreens were backlit in pink. But you'll just have to take my word for it because I could never find the right place to stop and get a good picture of it and I was running low on gas and had to stop and re-fuel. Bummer.


So ends my daytrip. I got home sometime after 10pm. I was tired but the trip was SO worth it. I'm already planning my next trip in my head. Memorial Day weekend is coming up and I'm thinking Olympic National Park! Oooohhh (anxiously rubbing hands together) We'll see. You can't plan too much though or you lose some sense of adventure. 'Til next time!