Heaven on Earth, The North Cascades Loop July 6, Part One!

Revelations 4:1

"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist, and came to be."

I knew the North Cascades were a sight to see but until we started up the loop we had no idea how amazing this place was! We started out looking for a short hike called the Lone Fir Loop Trail.  We couldn't find it but we were close.  We stopped in Mazama to ask for help.  Mike noticed fruit on a tree.  He thought they were cherries, I think.  He immediately tasted them and knew they weren't cherries and he didn't know what they were.  I said, "I hope they aren't poisonous."  He is still with us so they weren't poisonous.  Never a dull moment.

 Mazama means goat.  We wondered why everything had goats on it.  That's why.

 We headed up the road to the trail.  We were amazed at the beauty but little did we know we had much more to come.

 We made it!

 It was amazing how the underbrush, foliage and trees changed in such a short distance.

 Here it is, short, narrow and over a creek.  It was unique but not hard to cross.  If it were up higher it might have been a little more challenging.

 Now this was funny.  The trail ended after the bridge.  Mike wanted to investigate to see if the trail continued.  You can't really tell here but the wood is slanted just passed the point where you see Mike.  Mike decide to give it a try, slant and all! He didn't make it across.

 Right in the muddy creek water.

 This is his return trip and you can see how slanted the wood is.  I laughed, yes I did!

 Trail completed and we continued up the North Cascades Loop.  Our next planned stop was Lake Diablo.

 We didn't know this at the time we passed here but these are mountains that are climbed.  We were looking for the climbing wall we had heard about.  Liberty Wall.  Climbers start climbing and if they don't make it to the top they sleep on the wall.  We were looking for a wall by the road.  Wrong.  The climbing wall we were looking for was actually a mountain.  The most famous of them is called Liberty Bell.  We will get a closer look at Liberty Bell later!

 Snow!  I love snow!!!

 We made it! We knew this lake was going to be unique but never imagined the beautiful color of this mountain lake.  The rocks weather and produce silt. The silt goes in to the lake and the minerals in the silt react to the sun and produce this color.

 I took this picture with my close up camera lens. I zoomed in and caught this kayak.

 I changed the lens and took another picture from the same spot. The kayak rider looks like a tiny dot.

 Off to our next location! We wanted to take a hike somewhere but where.  There are tons of places to hike!

 We went to the ranger station to get some hiking ideas.  A stop light into the ranger station because this part of the road was one way.

 We got some information about two different places to hike.

 Blue Lake here we come!

 Blue Lake will be the next blog post!