MLK Day With Theo & Ruby Snow Fort Worth Building At Hyak Sno-Park

On this 2018 edition of Martin Luther King Day, Theo & Ruby decided today was a day worth fort building.

So, Theo & Ruby, along with big brother David, took their parental units a few miles east of their Tacoma abode to Snoqualmie Pass, from whence, a few minutes ago, their mama Michele sent the above photo of Theo & Ruby building a snow fort.

David did not think building a fort worth his time, so he opted instead to have fun throwing snow when he was not consuming snow cones.

It seems like only yesterday I was in a much warmer location with Theo, Ruby & David, at Birch Bay, building a sand fort, well, castle. David opted out of that building project, for the most part, too. And he also threw some sand, but at that point in time he consumed no sand cones.

For those with no familiarity with locations on the planet with extreme elevation variables, who are used to an extremely flat planet, let me explain where Theo & Ruby are.

In Tacoma, where Theo & Ruby live, their house is not very many feet above sea level. To the west of their abode there is a mountain range called the Olympics. To the east of their abode is a mountain range called the Cascades.

In the Cascades is where one finds Washington's five volcanoes.

The state of Washington is divided by the Cascades into Western and Eastern Washington. Eastern Washington is like Texas, but more scenic, with a BIG river running through it. Eastern Washington is also like Texas politically. It is the red part of Washington, with a higher percentage of rednecks than the blue western side of the Cascades.

In summer there are several ways to drive over the Cascade mountain between the west and east side. The North Cascades Highway, Stevens Pass, Snoqualmie Pass and White Pass connect the two sides of the state, weather permitting, with Stevens and Snoqualmie the two passes kept open year round, for the most part, with an occasional closure due to heavy snow and avalanche danger. Or an actual avalanche.

In total in Washington there are more than a couple dozen  of what are known as mountain passes. You can check all of them out via Wikipedia's Mountain Passes of Washington State page.

A highway over a mountain range, the North Cascades for instance, has two passes, Rainy Pass and Washington Pass. For those unfamiliar with the pass concept, a pass is the point were a road "passes" over a summit, as in reaches a high point and then heads back down. Such can occur more than once on any given mountain crossing road, but only happens once on the two main passes across Washington's Cascades, that being Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass.

Stevens Pass is crossed by Highway 2. Snoqualmie Pass, where David, Theo & Ruby are today, is crossed by Interstate 90.

All the major Washington mountain passes have ski resorts at their summit, except for the North Cascades Highway.

The ski resort at Snoqulamie Pass, where Theo & Ruby felt a fort worthwhile to build, is known as Hyak Sno-Park. There are a couple other ski resorts at Snoqualmie along with Hyak. My last time on a chairlift at Snoqualmie was in the 1990s. And it was not to ski. In summer you can put your mountain bike on a ski lift in order to be taken to the high country for some rugged mountain biking and an eventual fun, fast trek back to the chair lift base.

I do not know how far from my current location I would need to travel to find a chairlift and snowy mountain to play on, other than, of course, nearby Mount Wichita, sans snow and chairlift. Would it be in New Mexico at Ruidoso or Taos? Os somewhere in Colorado?

Snow is currently in the forecast at my location. I doubt sufficient will fall of a depth permitting some adventurous Mount Wichita skiing. Or sledding...