In Search of the Mountain

Finally the day arrived for us to begin our journey east on WA 20 into the Cascade Mountains.  As soon as we left Sedro-Woolley, I was snapping pictures of the pretty Skagit Valley out the front window. 

We only went 24 miles to Grandy Lake County Park - $10, no amenities, unless you consider a port-a-pot an amenity.  It’s just perfect for us and, as an added bonus, you can have all the blackberries you can pick.  We dropped off the RV and took the car north on Baker Lake Road in search of the perfect picture of Mt. Baker.  The first mountain sighting was Mt. Shuksan and, yes, I am standing in the middle of the road.

(I really do miss my 10x zoom.)

The first good sighting of Mt. Baker was while crossing the Upper Baker Dam.  There was no stopping on the one-lane dam, so I just stuck my camera out the window.  Uh-oh, it looks like the clouds are gathering.

I had this idea that if we hiked the trail on the east side of the lake, we would see Mt. Baker with the lake in the foreground.  The sign at the trailhead seemed to confirm this when it said we would have glimpses of the mountain and lake.  So off we went.

When we spotted this lovely cedar tree, I thought I’d again try the shot where ‘we’ broke the camera.  This time I took it with the strap securely around my wrist.

That went well, but I’m afraid the sign had exaggerated the views.

On the way back to the dam, Ron found a spot where we could get down to the lake for a shot of Mt. Baker and the dam, but that still wasn’t perfect.

Baker Lake is gorgeous, even with the orange buoys.

We drove up the west side of the lake, stopping at all the boat ramps to admire the scenery.

This young man created his own boat using a piece of wood about 10 feet long and 18 inches wide.  Pretty clever, I’d say.

Finally we found that the best view of majestic Mt. Baker was where the road crossed Boulder Creek.  Who would have thought?

Ron suggested we take a selfie on the only day I didn’t bring my phone.  Do you know how hard it is to take a selfie with a camera?  It took us a few tries.

Later when we returned to the RV, Ron broke out the grill and made us hamburgers. 

While I took some pictures of pretty Grandy Lake.

We couldn’t remember the last time we parked at an actual campground, but we’ll be doing that a lot on this part of our trip.  We love it, especially since there is a fire ban right now.  Yeah!