Naches Peak Loop

On Saturday, we escaped from our blazing valley to the mountains and hiked the Naches Peak Loop Trail. It was 30 degrees cooler up in Chinook Pass--a welcome reprieve from the Yakima Valley's end-of-July heat wave. We have lived 2 hours from this gorgeous trail for eight years and somehow have never hiked the whole loop. I have always heard how beautiful the loop is, and it still exceeded my expectations.

The weather was absolutely idyllic when we arrived at the crowded Tipsoo Lake parking lot at high noon on Saturday, July 21st: 60 degrees, sunny, and a pure blue cloudless sky. That fresh mountain breeze wafting over us was pure heaven. In all our years of driving through Chinook Pass and stopping at Tipsoo Lake, I have never seen it as busy as it was on Saturday. Thankfully, the crowds dispersed along the trail and we enjoyed plenty of solitude. We stood in line for the smelly vault toilets and then embarked on the trail. 

Rose was very reluctant from the minute we announced our intentions to hike, and she remained sluggish and reluctant for about 3/4 of the hike. We had a serious talk about how whining and complaining dampens the mood of the whole group, and how it was her choice to be grumpy or happy. Then I pulled out the big guns and said that after hikes we like to relax as a family, so we would watch a movie and eat ice cream when we got home from the hike. Only happy hikers would get to enjoy the post-hike relaxation/ice cream/movie. Thankfully Rose only needed a handful of reminders about the movie and ice cream before she swallowed her negativity.

Our Rose-girl is a force to be reckoned with! She couldn't even tell me a good reason why she didn't want to hike. All she said was "I'm too tired and I don't feel like it." Jeff and I took it in turns to hang back with her while Amber and Jay forged far forward along the trail with the other parent. I had hoped to all hike together the whole time since it was just the five of us, but we inch wormed it instead. By the last half mile of the hike, Rose was much happier and more willing to walk at a non-turtle pace, and we finished the last half mile together.

Jay was pleased that hiking three rugged miles was easy for him in his swim team fitness. He even commented, "This is easy. I feel like I haven't even walked two steps yet because I am in shape from swim team." He enjoyed the hike except when Amber elbowed him out of the way so she could be in front. It was hilarious to watch the nine-year-old do battle with the three-year-old.

Amber was a ball of energy, running ahead and teetering here and there along the edges of the trail in her trademark headlong fashion. Jeff carried her on his shoulders during the more tricky sections, to preserve both Amber's safety and her mother's nerves (that's me). Whenever Jay pulled ahead of Amber, she screeched a battle cry and attacked him with her elbows till she could get around him to the front again. A few times, Jay ran past her and got too far ahead for Amber to catch. When that happened, Amber turned to Jeff and asked "Can you carry me, Daddy?" When Jeff scooped her onto his shoulders, she cried "Go get Jay, Daddy!! GO!" Jeff played along as her trusty steed and charged up the trail after Jay. (how does he run down a narrow rocky trail with a child on his shoulders?) After about 2.5 miles of running and climbing, Amber was ready to be carried more regularly. First she stopped running ahead and elbowing Jay out of the way. Then she started willingly holding hands with either me or Jeff. Then she started asking for rides. Jeff was a champion and did most of the heavy lifting.

As for me, I was in mountain heaven. Everywhere I looked, a gorgeous evergreen view met my gaze. It was so clear and cloudless and the air was so pine-sweet, cool, and fresh that I was a tad giddy--mountain high indeed! The breeze was all pine and snow-cooled air, with nary a trace of cowpie, dust, skunk, or haze that we left behind in our valley. The wildflowers were delicate and darling. The placid icy blue lakes were gleaming. The mountains all around us were rugged and scenic. When we rounded the bend about 2.5 miles in and saw Mt. Rainier sitting large and in charge right in front of us, it about took my breath away. What a view! I kept wanting to throw my head back to twirl and sing with my arms out like Maria in The Sound of Music. The hills were alive!! The beauty fed my SOUL. I could have happily parked myself down by one of the small reflective pools we passed and spent the entire afternoon communing with nature.

We finished the loop back where we started, at Tipsoo Lake. I marveled again how MUCH snow has melted in the past 2 weeks since we last stopped at Tipsoo. Seriously, we couldn't even see the trail and there were massive mounds of snow everywhere just two weeks ago, but this time it was dry and we only saw a handful of very small patches of snow on the entire hike.

Spending time in the wild beauty of nature makes me feel so peaceful--like I have been living slightly out of sync. When I go back to the glorious silent presence of natural beauty, everything falls back into place and my discordant frequency realigns to hum in tune with the beauty of the earth. Is that a bit much? It's so hard to put that soul-singing feeling of being outside in beautiful places into words!

It goes without saying that I took numerous pictures and I love them all. I carried our mini camera in my back pocket and it performed admirably once again. It was like choosing which of my children to keep and which to abandon while I was picking pictures for this post. 

Part of the Naches Loop is on the Pacific Crest Trail.

WILDFLOWERS

Stream crossing

Hello, Mt. Rainier! That cloud on the left quickly moved over and obscured the peak by the time we had located a friendly hiker to take a family picture for us.

The girl we asked to take our picture was very thorough, moving around and getting several angles of us with the mountain. Curse that cloud for covering it up!

Jay and the mountain.

 It was such a clear day that Mt. Adams was visible on the horizon!

Two hours of driving, almost two hours of hiking, another two hours of driving (with a quick stop at Costco), and we were back home watching Harry Potter #2 with pizza, carrots, and ice cream: a satisfying end to a well-balanced Saturday.