The thing I love most about living in a new area is that we get to be explorers.  Especially here in Washington, where hundreds of miles of untapped wilderness is just a very short drive.

My schedule is different this week because I’m working the “late” shift (12p-9p), but I’m working from home, so my mornings are free.  We decided to explore and we ended up down on the Chinook Pass Scenic Byway.  This road eventually traverses two mountain passes within Mt. Rainier National Park and reaches an elevation of over 5000 ft.  At that point, it’s closed this time of year due to snow.  We stayed in the lower elevations of the Cascades, only reaching about 1500 feet, but the temperature was still 17 degrees cooler there than at our house.

Our destination point was the White River.  This river is sourced by the Emmons Glacier on Mt. Rainer and it was, in a word, rushing yesterday!

The beauty that surrounds us out here takes my breath away.  We’re going back on a sunny day because we’ll actually be able to see Rainier from the area, too.