Today we went exploring again and it was delightful. We started out the day by heading for Snoqualmie Falls, a spectacular cataract that drops more than 200 feet over a brink onto jagged rocks below. There is no calm pool at the bottom because the water coming over the falls gets launched back into the air by the jumbled rocks below sometimes squirting about 50 feet back up before landing in the lower river. It is very impressive, especially when we were there since the flow was around 11,000 cubic feet per second or more than 80,000 gallons for those of us not on the metric system.
After lingering in the spray for quite some time, we hopped back into Charlotte for a drive a bit further up the road to see a house that Peggy’s sister, Tonie, and her husband, George, used to own in North Bend, WA. It was a very nice place with a huge front yard but the part I liked the most was view out the front window. Rising out of the valley floor is Mount Si, a giant chunk of rock that offers many amazing views as the light changes during the day. Mount Si is very steep and evidence of rock slides and avalanches are plainly visible as areas without any form of flora whatsoever are left after all the rock or snow clears the terrain right down to mineral soil.
From North Bend we hopped on I-90 east to check out Snoqualmie Pass which we may be required to traverse as we head for the Great Basin. The road was wet and there was abundant snow alongside the road but the actual road surface was good right up to the pass at 3000 feet. Our other option, if we do not go back south and go up the Columbia River, is Stevens Pass which is on US-2 starting in Monroe, rising to 4000 feet and coming out over by Leavenworth, WA. More of Peg’s relatives are there so we could probably stop in near their place if they don’t see us coming first.
There’s a couple pix if you click here