Snow Lake, Snoqualmie

About an hour drive from Seattle and another hour hike leads into this hidden lake in the middle of the cascades. As the name indicates, this lake is completely covered with glacier in the winter. Here in the middle of July, there are still some ice patches floating on the lake. I dipped in the lake and could only endure for 10 seconds in this frosty ice-cold water :) but it was so refreshing.





Driving: 1 hour and 10 bucks of gas
Hiking: 1 hour
Energy snacks and water: 5 dollars
10 second dip in the freezing lake: priceless

Illumination

July 4th at Lake Union


Seattle Center

1 day hike, 2 waterfalls

Snoqualmie falls, seems so far away, yet so close to civilization.




Force of nature


Twin Falls State Park


Today I decide to hike to the waterfalls for my waterfalls photo theme. My trip begin at noon as I drive along I-90 East toward Twin Falls State Park at exit 35. The nice thing about this park, is you start hiking along the water stream all the way to its source, the twin waterfalls. Along the path, the trees are green with trunks covered by green mosses. Lush of vegetation on the ground and raspberries are ripe bloody red. The celebration of life is once again at its fullest. The music of serenity from the water flow is playing nonstop. For my break, I sit on a big rock in between the waterfalls and the steam, listening to the water flow, admiring nature's beauty and capture some photos.

Now it's about 6pm, time to leave Twin Falls and go visit another waterfall, Snoqualmie Falls. It's on the way back to Seattle on exit 25. Snoqualmie falls is much grander and unbelievably in the backyard, a few miles off I-90. The falls are so powerful and steep, dropping 268 feet in vertical with such a velocity that creates a thumping sound and shoots out the water vapors hundreds feet back to the top. I decide to stay till dark for my night shots of the falls and it is definitely worth it.

Mount Si, revisited

I hiked this mountain last summer. Yesterday, I went there again with my friends. 4 miles up and 4 miles down, and 10 pounds of my camera equipments on my back made this hike a real work out. It was a constant incline all the way to the top and coming down was just as hard as going up. But it was worth every step to get to the top at 4,000 ft. elevation. This time I could see mount Rainier and managed to get some good close-up shots of the birds.

Tulip Farm, Skagit Valley

To my surprise, the weather turned out to be nice today. So my buddy and I decided to go check out tulip farm, an hour drive north. This is the last week of tulip season. So a photo op not to miss or will have to wait until next summer.

The Puget Sound

Winter is long this year. It's still cold in May. I wish I could go into hibernation like the polar bear in winter :)