Finding Snow Around Seattle

The warm weather we had in January sent the wrong message. It told all of Debbie's tulips it was spring and they all started popping out of the ground. Unfortunately this meant when freezing temperatures came back a couple weeks later, they all died. Not only did we get freezing temperatures, we got a late season snowfall. But despite the untimely demise of all the front yard flowers, we took advantage of the situation to go play in the snow with our Jeeps.

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Winter days around here can be a miserable unless you set out to have fun. Snoqualmie Falls was a brilliant sight with the walls all covered in ice. But the wind was strong and biting cold. So unless you were determined to enjoy yourself it can be a bit rough.

It was horrible! Well, maybe not so bad. Actually we manage to find fun no matter where we go. Yes, we are that determined! If you ever get the chance, when it is bitter freezing cold, bundle up and head out to Snoqualmie Falls. The ice on the walls is spectacular, but the freezing mist and wind blowing off the falls can be a bit much to take.

Now thoroughly chilled to the bone, we headed out for a drive in the country, then home for the evening.

The next day we were greeted with significantly more snow, and we were off again! This time we headed up to Snoqualmie Pass. It was cloudy, but still beautiful.

And of course, this gives Jesse a chance to screw around and generally get a lot of angry stares from people driving by. But snow piles just seem to call out to Jeeps.

Emma still isn't sure what to think of all this cold white stuff.

 One of the sights along Interstate 90 are the numerous waterfalls. If there is now on the road, it allows you to drive slow enough to actually see them, and if traffic is light enough you may even get to stop to take pictures. Ok, perhaps we shouldn't have stopped, but there was plenty of room in this spot, so we chanced it.

After having some fun in the ski resort parking lots and back roads around the area, we headed back down the hill into Redmond where we had to pose for a picture on top of the parking garage at Jesse's work place. Emma was not thrilled with having to sit still in the snow.

By this time, the snow here was already beginning to melt. So we headed off on a trek to find more snow. The first try was along highway 410, which is closes for the winter, but there are plenty of things to see all the way up to the gate.

Just outside the town of Greenwater is a rock wall that has water slowly seeping out of it. The ice wall that forms in winter is pretty amazing to see and also very dangerous as the giant icicles often tumble onto the road below.

With Crystal Mountain up ahead being very busy on a day like today, and also being the only real destination on this road for the winter, we decided that maybe we should head south instead. QUite a bit south actually. We headed all the way down to Randle, WA. When you want to head up the back side of Mt St Helens to Windy Ridge, this is where you drive to. Then head south some more.

Snow! Lots of snow! And very little traffic. We saw only two other vehicles on the road all the way up to where we turned around. The drive is great in the summer time, and even more so in the winter.

There is a slide area on the trip up and is hard to describe because of the size. A number of years ago, this was a single lane wooden bridge, and thankfully has been replaced with a more permanent structure.

Hopefully these two pictures give some idea of the scale of the slide area.

Alas, the road is closed in the winter. And knowing what the road is like on the other side of the gate, I don't think I would want to drive it in this snow either.

There was a parking lot open where we had a chance to pose for some more pictures. Once again, Emma taking center stage.

This time Jesse talking Debbie into climbing the snow bank as well.

There was a brief thought of trying to drive further up this road, but we weren't prepared for going any further than we had already gone. So without supplies, this brought us to the end of our trip.

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from this weekend in the OneDrive Gallery we've posted. There was a lot more to see and plenty more views to check out.