On the Fourth of July, my little family took a lovely little daytrip just east to visit Mt. Hood! Finally! I’ve been so excited to see this mountain up close and personal since we moved here last fall.
My husband and I visited Mt. Rainier a few summers ago and it floored me how incredibly gorgeous it was. We stayed overnight at Paradise Lodge, right up on the mountain, and spent hours walking and gawking at the scenery. (Um, apparently I never put any photos up here…will have to fix that!) So of course I’ve been antsy to have another beautiful mountain experience.
Now, obviously it was not going to be any long trip with two babies in tow. Certainly nothing that would take ‘hours.’ I didn’t mind, though; I just wanted to get up there and see the glory!
And by golly, it was glorious indeed.
One of the fun things about driving to mountains is rounding corners and seeing the mountain in front of you, bigger each time.
Did you know the exterior/establishing shots for The Shining were of Timberline Lodge?
The lodge is just around that corner–see the tiny bit of road at the bottom? See what I mean about glorious??
And in black and white too, just because.
Turned around from that same spot, now looking south:
At the lodge. This was as close as we got. Which was pretty good for such a short outing, I figured. Plenty of ogling time.
On the south-facing balcony of the lodge:
And the view! That’s Mt. Jefferson.
We found a short ‘hike’ (maybe a mile roundtrip) along a little river to a small falls.
It was so peaceful and cool!
Little Zigzag Falls!
1/20th was the longest shutter speed I could do handheld–I was pretty psyched that it came out so great! I can be wobbly sometimes. 🙂
Ahhh, evergreen trees and sunshine. Such a balm to the soul.
Lots of them have fallen down, though.
Here’s my husband and one of our babies, testing out some water dripping from overhead. I love the light on little M’s face. (If you’re interested in seeing more of them, you can see the post on my twin blog here.)
We can’t wait to go explore more of nature!