Washington is called the Evergreen State for a reason. The green of the fir trees is the primary color all year. In the fall, the underbrush and maples do their best to supply the reds, oranges and yellows we look forward to. While the large displays of colors in Washington are not nearly as abundant as on the east coast, we do have beautiful displays in their own right. That's what we set out to find on this day. We left home about 10 a.m., early as always. :-) No donuts for breakfast today. Aren't you proud of us?! Ha!
Bruce planned our route to take us over roads we hadn't traveled in many moons, and we had a blast! Instead of pounding up I-5 to Stevens pass, we drove back roads through Preston and Fall City, Duvall and Monroe (Boy, has that area changed!), Startup and Index, over Stevens pass past Leavenworth, over Blewett pass (29 degrees and lightly snowing at the top - FUN!), through Ellensburg, followed the Yakima river through the Ellensburg canyon (a really fun drive always), over White and Cayuse passes, through Enumclaw to home. Nine hours and many miles of beautiful country!
Though we have some of the colors in spits and spurts at our elevation of sea level, we found larger quantities at higher elevations and that's what we were looking for. Here are a few pictures we took along the way.
These were near the top of Stevens pass. What we thought was haze turned out to be smoke from the Tripp Canyon fire near Cashmere. The haze wasn't as significant at Stevens pass as on Blewett, but it still dimmed the view of the colors somewhat. The smoke was pretty heavy on Blewett pass to the point of burning eyes as we climbed up Blewett. I've done what I can to clear the haze off a bit for your viewing pleasure. ;-)
We didn't find much color on Blewett pass, but we did giggle at the snow coming down. Yikes! Winter is getting way too close for these two old timers. Glad we're only a few days away from leaving and heading south. While we always miss our family, we don't miss the rain and cold of the PNW. Arizona here we come!
Driving through the Ellensburg canyon, we spotted a herd of deer in an orchard shortly after entering the north end of the canyon. There were some brilliant red shrubs growing here and there. That red was a stark contrast to the brown and black of the canyon.
Always on the look out for critters, the Bighorns of the Umptanum ridge were waiting for us at the south end of the canyon in the same place we frequently find them. It was about 3:30 when we spotted the first herd.
A really nice ram was laying all by himself. Look at the curl on this guy. Probably a 3/4 curl, but a brute of a ram!
There was a second herd farther to the south, but there was no place for the big-ass truck to pull out for pictures. :-( There were a couple of nice rams in this batch, too.
White pass is where we'll head first next time. Between the view of an icy mountain . . .
and the awesome displays of color, we were in awe. Leaves of gold and brown were being blown off the trees and danced their way down to the ground all around us. Awesome! Especially when watched from inside a nice, warm truck. LOL
We found one pocket of color where we spent some time taking pictures. The wind was blocked in this spot. Great!
The picture below shows the progression of color from orange at the top to reds at the bottom. Gorgeous!
After we left the fantastic leaves, Clear Creek falls caught out eye. The thermometer on the truck said 28 degrees and was flashing "ice." Stepping out to take pictures, the wind hit us and we believed it was C O L D freakin' COLD!
The Tamaracks are changing, too, and will soon lose their needles.
Check out the ice on both sides of the falls. Yikes! It was 28 degrees and windy. Brrrrrr! Old Man Winter is closing in on us.
Awesome escape day for the two of us!
