Winter Coastlines

On December 19th my son-in-law, Scott, and I went out with our cameras to Larrabee State Park in the Chuckanut Mountains south of Bellingham.  The Chuckanuts are a low range of mountains that connect the North Cascades with the sea - with Puget Sound to be more accurate.  We hiked the short trail to Clayton Beach and took some time exposures of a small waterfall and of the sea, of the Madrones and of anything else we could find, though on a dull winter day there was not a lot to photograph.

Note: the strange formations are Chuckanut Sandstone weathered by the wind and waves.

On December 22 we were out again, this time to Sharpe Park on Fidalgo Island.  It was a dull day once again and the Madrones were the main item of interest - Sharpe Park has some of the most beautiful old Madrones I've seen anywhere.  We hiked the trails to Sares Head with its great views of the islands and the Sound and then hiked along the bluffs and back to the car.  As always at this time of the year we photographed anything we could find including some mushrooms and fungi.

Note: the Madrones are Arbutus menziesii, a tree found only along the Pacific Coast.

A Drive to Mount Baker

We had quite a few family members with us over the holidays and on December 31 my son-in-law and I took my parents on a drive up the Mount Baker Highway to the ski resort at the end of the road.  We made a number of stops for pictures, had lunch at the ski resort and then headed back down.  My parents are in their 80's and not able to get around very well any more, but they enjoyed the drive, especially because it was one of the few sunny days we've had recently.

One of the first stop we made was along the North Fork of the Nooksack River.

We stopped again not very far up the road by the parking area for Hannegan Pass.

We also drove a ways up the Forest Service Road there to get pictures of Mount Shuksan.

Another stop was the lower ski area for its incredible views of Shuksan and the surrounding peaks.

Before the upper ski area we stopped near Picture Lake for more photos of Shuksan.

And again at the end of the parking lot for the ski area and some views of Table Mountain.

We had lunch in the chalet at the upper ski resort and took more pictures there before heading home.

Note: Mount Baker is not visible from any of these areas.  One has to snowshoe to artisit's Point or take the lifts to the highest ski runs at the upper ski area in order to see Mount Baker.