We decided to go for a drive to Enumclaw today to see the fall leaves. I've never been to Enumclaw that I can remember, and it is so close to us now. So we headed out.
We came to a fork in the road and it said Mt. Rainer one way and something the other, so we said sure, let's go to Mt. Rainer. It's been a long time since we've been there. It's definately a different route than I've ever taken, and Dave too.
When you see it from a distance you don't even see this little peak on the side.
Not too many fall leaves up here. We came to another fork and it said to Portland one way and another something else the other. Thinking we would miss Rainer if we went the Portland way, we went the other. Oops... wrong way. Oh well, we'll enjoy it anyway.
So we get up to the summit of Chinook Pass and got out to take some pictures. Oh yes, most of these pictures were taken through a dirty windshield. I asked one guy if he knew how far it was to Yakima and he said he thought it was about 45 minutes away. So we thought, hey, that's not so bad, let's do it.
These pictures got a little mixed up as I posted them, sorry. Most of the ones with the fall leaves are from the west side and then it began to get more barren as we got closer to Yakima. Oh yeah, it wasn't 45 minutes, more like double that. But that's okay, we needed an escape today.
This one made me very sad. This was just coming in to the eastern side of Washington. We could see the hillside behind a ways back and I thought that there were deciduous trees interspersed with the fir trees. But as we got closer I saw that they were dead fir trees. Years ago when we returned from taking Carla to Prairie Bible School in Canada we came back through Montana, Idaho and in to Washington. There was a progression of dying trees and it was a beetle that was destroying all the pine trees. As you got closer to Eastern Washington it diminished some until you got to the west side and we had our nice green fir trees again. I am wondering if this is from the same beetle that is destroying the pine trees of the east side.
Out of place picture. The next two are from Chinook pass looking onto the William O Douglas and Norse Peak Wilderness. We do still have some wilderness left, thank God.
As we got closer to Yakima, we saw less and less trees until there was nothing but rock. Homes sit where they literally cut them out of rock and built there homes. No yards, nothing but rock on every side.
But we did get to see some pretty trees before crossing over. Not as many as I would have thought. I was so afraid of missing them as I do every year and guess I was a little early.
When we got to Yakima and filled up the tank I washed the windows so we could get better pictures, but there just wasn't anything worth photographing there. I am so glad that I live on the west side of the Cascades.
There was one thing that we were not early with. We were sitting eating dinner in Ellensburg in a nice little family restaurant and I had this thought.... I asked Dave what day it was... and he looked at his watch and said "the day after our anniversary." It hit us both at the same time. Oh my gosh, 34 years and we both forget?! I'm sure he felt better that I forgot too, because last year I remembered and he forgot. So I told him that for our 35th we are going to have to plan something really BIG! Maybe a trip to Hawaii? I'll make him pay for forgetting two years in a row..... hehe.
