Karen and Tom Wanderings

Palisades Lakes Palisades Lakes is located in the north-eastern portion of Mt Rainier National Park, but nominally has no view of the mountain.  Certainly the reason we hadn't visited before now.  But with great weather, and the reportedly snow-free trail, we opted for the bigger vistas of the sub-alpine country instead of the lower, more heavily wooded hikes that were our alternatives. And an excellent choice it was.  The hike has the unusual characteristic (at least in the NW) that the trailhead is the high point, so you initially head seriously down.  Multiple beautiful lakes, sunshine, and green meadows dotted with flowers, subalpine firs and mountain hemlock.  Very soothing.  We even found the energy to do a side excursion to the top of Brown Peak, which had big-time views in every direction ... including Mt Rainier.  After grunting back up to the trailhead, we made a mandatory stop at Sunrise to take in the close-up views from there.  Anothe...

In normal circumstances, this little outing might not have made it's own post.  But, after 10 months of issues, including body non-compliance and Covid lockdown, it needed to be celebrated.  Summer comes pretty late to the mountains in Washington, so adventuring into the high alpine country still requires negotiating snow, though it's never clear how much or where.  So, I opted for a day trip to relatively-low Goat Lake in the North Cascades (in an area sometimes known as the rainy valley). While not a particularly spectacular hike by Cascade standards, the trailed wandered through a lush, fern-filled forest ... bursting with shades of green!  A large creek tumbling down the mountain provided a soundtrack, and a number of substantial waterfalls to admire.  And some huge trees (mostly cedar and hemlock) populated the forest for the last couple of miles to the lake.  Interestingly, much of the area had clearly been logged many years ago, but some of these m...