Stevens Pass

We've been have an extended period of serious rain. Usually, rain in Seattle is a mist or light rain that a jacket and hat will repel. Off and on for the last two weeks or more, we had intermittent "toad stringers" as we say back home. It just won't stop.

We'll we finally had a break in the weather and we took advantage and hustled off to Stevens Pass for a quick look before all the snow was gone.



The most interesting thing about this ride is how different it is from a similar sort of thing on the east coast. When you ride along, say, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Skyline Drive, or even just a state road through the mountains on the east coast, when there is a view to see, there is nearly always a pullout for parking and viewing. And these view places will have a few trees removed so you can actually see something.

Here, however, you are clearly expected to get off your arse, float a kayak, and get in the river and experience the mountains, not simply have a nice ride to see it. There are places to pull out but all trees are intact and the views are limited. And where there are few trees, there are no pullouts.

It really seems that in the portion of the trip where we paralleled the Skyhomish river, there was one swathe of trees cut down. This cleared path was used by the river, the road, the train, the local power lines, the  telephone lines, and the high voltage transmission lines. Hence, the only place to be is a busy place. This really limits the places you can stand and get a decent photo.

Nevertheless, we were able to see some beautiful mountains and many places still covered with snow. In the image below, we see the dark blue-green trees that are covered as if by confectioners sugar.

At the higher elevations where the rock is exposed, we see the snow covered peaks.

Surprisingly, it was not cold, even at the highest altitude of about 4200 ft at the top of the pass. There is a ski resort at the crest of the pass, but it is all closed for the season and there is no other settlement or village there. We got to the top and turned around and headed back.

It was a fun ride and we'll certainly do it again as spring continues to come and the deciduous trees bloom and leave.