Took another trip to God's Country

This is Jon. Mother Nature played a trick on us again. Sunday was the second time we planned to head up to Mt. Rainier to go sledding at Paradise, but torrential downpours over the last couple of days caused landslides which closed White Pass for hours on Saturday night and Sunday morning. This is after last month's President's Day storm which dropped six feet of snow on Paradise over the course of three days, which meant we weren't getting there even if we had chains on a four-wheel drive truck driven by a guy named "Joe Six Pack". We still headed up into the hills though because we like going places that take us away from reality, even if it's just for a day drive.

As we headed up Hwy 12 to White Pass, we stopped by the Oak Creek Elk Feeding station about 15 minutes west of Naches. I guesstimate there were about 150 elk there and were within a few feet of us. Delaney and I actually went to the Watt Canyon feeding station 15 miles west of Ellensburg on Saturday and they were nowhere near us, but close enough for us to make out they were elk, so it was pretty cool to get to see them so close.

Not sure who is the more domesticated animal in this picture as my daughters can get quite crazy at times. They're all smiles and incredibly cooperative here. In fact, pretty much every time they're outside, they're good.

We continued west on Hwy 12 and pulled off at Clear Lake. No one around, we were away from the highway, so it was dead silent in a pristine environment besides the kids blowing off steam and threatening to jump off the ledge down the embankment into the ice covered lake.

Further west on Hwy 12 is Rimrock Lake, about 10 miles from the top of White Pass. This is clearly a destination place in the summer time as there were plenty of camping areas and lakeside resort-type developments. On Sunday however, we had it all to ourselves. This was farming and ranchland in the 1800s and early 1900s before homesteaders sold to the Bureau of Reclamation in 1917. One sign said that when the lake is really low, you might be able to make out some of the buildings that remain that are usually underwater.

Immediately after this photo was taken, Adelyn did her signature move: Throwing a big rock into the water, but close enough to splash Delaney pretty well. Of course the joke was also on Adelyn since she had to stand in the water to do it, soaking everything on her in the process. What does that equate to? Driving kids home without shoes and socks on so they can dry. Where were the parents during this fiasco? Oh, that's right, taking a cute picture.