Where In The Enchanted Pacific Northwest Are David, Theo & Ruby?

Incoming email this morning from my favorite nephews and niece, David, Theo and Ruby.

Subject line in the email: "Where in the PNW?"

Those not familiar with those three PNW letters, PNW is a short way of saying Pacific Northwest.

Those not familiar with the Washington area of the Pacific Northwest are sometimes surprised by the wide variety of scenic wonders one finds in that state.

One can venture from a saltwater beach to the mountains via a short drive.

Or take a longer drive, such as the one David, Theo and Ruby apparently directed their parental units to take to reach one of Washington's most visited areas of the Cascade Mountains.

It was rather easy to figure out where David, Theo and Ruby were in the PNW.

I was fairly certain I knew, even before I came to the photo below which confirmed what I suspected.

Above we see the trio posed under a trailhead sign indicating they are at the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie Forest.

I miss hiking in a forest of big trees which smell like Christmas. Though this time of year can be a bit vexing whilst hiking in the Washington high country, due to the tendency to be pestered by biting flies til one gets above the timberline. And not all the trails get above that line.

One of the areas of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness is known as the Enchantments. The Enchantments are accessed  from the Stevens Pass side of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, via Icicle Road, near Leavenworth. I do not think these are The Enchantments we are seeing here. I suspect David, Theo and Ruby likely accessed the Alpine Lakes via the Snoqualmie Pass option. hence the water we see David, Theo and Ruby cooling off in are not Enchanted.

As you can see, via the view behind Theo, the Alpine Lakes are a popular destination. Some areas limit access to a set number of hikers per day. That appears to be David, over Theo's left shoulder, sitting in one of the Alpine Lakes's more than 700 lakes.

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness has some of the most rugged terrain in the Cascade Mountains, with craggy precipitous rock formations, multiple deep valleys formed by glaciers, which in summer provide the melted water which fills all those Alpine Lakes. And that water is cold, but you might not think it to be cold, judging from looking at Theo and David, above, but Ruby does looks as if she may be reacting to the icy water.

All the natural waterfalls in these pictures are reminding me of all the manmade waterfalls I see when I drive around Chandler, Arizona, which always cause me to think those same type fake waterfalls need to be installed all over Wichita Falls, making the town's name make more sense, in addition to the one big fake waterfall already installed in an attempt to make the town's name make more sense.

Regarding the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, in all my years of hiking in the Pacific Northwest I never hiked any of the Alpine Lakes trails. I remember driving Icicle Road, near Leavenworth, and seeing the access points. I remember driving up in the Snoqualmie Forest zone near Roslyn and Cle Elum, and possibly being in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. I also remember one of the best mountain bike rides ever possibly being in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area, with the access point south of Cashmere on the Stevens Pass side of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness area was a long drive from my home location in the Skagit Valley. From the Skagit Valley there are many Cascade hiking destinations much closer to home.

I always wanted to hike to The Enchantments, but never did. Maybe the next time I'm in the Pacific Northwest, if the time of year is right, we can make that happen... .