For those of you who might be wonderng why we are spending so much time in WA, today was why. In Isaiah's words: "this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." We drove over 20 very rocky, long miles to reach the end of the Cascade Pass and the start of the trail head. The view was indescribably breathtaking. It had everything we had enjoyed at each mountain previously plus beavers (as we pulled into the parking lot a snow colored beaver scampered across the road). We headed up the trail which started snow covered, but strangely thawed as we got higher in elevation. The altitude adjustment was very difficult and especially so for me today but absolutely worth it. As we made our way up the path we came across a deer no more than 20 feet in front of us grazing on the grass growing along the path. We stood very still and the deer was reassured and continued to eat. Isaiah took that time to snap some incredible pictures of her. It was quite an experience.
We continued to an overlook that had fantastic views of the mountain and to the right a huge waterfall. Something about the sound of the rushing waterfall and angelic birds added to this special experience. A family happened upon the path and we exchanged cameras and then headed back down. Before leaving this vast and incredible mountain we stopped to take pictures of the beaver dams just a half mile down from the trail head parking lot. The drive down was almost worse than the drive up but Vandrea made it. For the night we drove as far as we could towards Spokane and hit up a rest stop for the night. -A
Deer on trail to overlook for Cascade Pass
View from Cascase Pass
View from Cascade Pass
View from Cascade Pass
View from Cascade Pass
View from Cascade Pass
Beaver's Dam along Cascade Pass drive
Gorge Overlook along State Route 20
Gorgeous! And it looks as though the deer was actually posing for the photo!
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