Just returned from a fantastic campout at Silver Fir Campground, out Mt Baker Highway.
On the way there, we took a few detours on Forest Service roads, just to see the sights. There were tons, and tons, of waterfalls. This one came right over the road and we had to drive through a few inches of water.
Once we got to the campsite, we set up the tent, Henry started a fire for us, and we got dinner going. One of the bizarre things... there we were at Silver Fir Campground with 20 campsites, and we were the only campers. Seriously! The place was empty. It was kind of strange, but also cool that we had the campground to ourselves.
We love our camp oven. Yummy biscuits!
After dinner, we went on down to the river and played at the beach. It was a beautiful night and the kids had fun throwing rocks in the Nooksack.
On Thursday morning, we headed up to Mt. Baker. Along the way, we took some more detours and scouted out future sites for dispersed camping. When we lived in Colorado, Dan and I always did dispersed camping - we had never camped in an organized campground until we moved to Washington. But it turns out that we did find some cool spots out Mt. Baker Highway - big plans for next year! That is, if we don't get too freaked out about black bears in the area. We found a lot of this...
More waterfalls. The water was gushing all over the place and we knew the snow was melting.
But it wasn't melting enough. I had envisioned a trip much like the camping trip we took to Silver Fir a few years ago. A hike back towards Lake Ann, an evening stroll around Picture Lake, an early morning hike at Bagley Lake... But this year, Mother Nature had other plans. It was rather... snowy.
This? Yep, this is the road to Heather Meadows lodge. Awesome (sarcasm).
Yep. This is the snowplow, making painstaking slow progress.
The drifts were soooooo high!
King of the Mountain. In shorts.
After our change of plans - no hiking for us! - we scouted out some more dispersed campsites. This was White Salmon Ridge. A beautiful view from the very top.
Happy boy.
This photo makes me laugh.
Love, love, love my boy.
And this little peanut, too.
Oh, Henry.
It was a great spot to sit and enjoy lunch. Dan had his fancy binoculars and we watched the storm move in.
Back to the campsite where we spent some quality time in the tent, playing cards, during a big rainstorm. Dan somehow managed to get a fire going when the rain died down and we made foil packs.
Not just any foil packs - but perhaps the best foil packs in the history of foil packs. They were done perfectly!
And just when we thought we were in for a rainy night, the sun decided to come out.
These three had so much fun throwing rocks - plunk! - and skipping stones. Henry held the record with eight skips.
We even made some paths across the river.
Cool driftwood.
But the rain did return, and we slept to the pitter patter of rain for most the night. This morning was cold and dreary but that didn't stop us from spending a couple more hours at the river.
Action shot!
Not to be outdone by her brother...
Alice made this leap, again and again. It was fun having the river to ourselves.
On the way back home, we stopped at Nooksack Falls.
We've been there many times before, but have never seen this volume of water. Melt snow, melt!
We even took a little hike through the forest on the other side so we could get the view from the top.
Whoa!
It was a great trip - even with the rain and too much snow!
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