Memorial Day Weekend 2014 Part 3

The last day of our long weekend we had sunshine and an idea of where we wanted to go. Once again we headed East. This time we took a left at Cle Elum, WA to head over Blewett Pass. Before heading over the pass, we decided to head up to a fire lookout we had read about, exploring some of the forest service roads along the way.

Memorial Day Weekend 2014 Part 2

Memorial Day Weekend day two was pretty uneventful, but we did get some exploring in. While traveling down the road to Packwood, WA on the East side of Mt Rainier we took a little side trip up an unmarked dirt road. This led us to a mostly abandoned road where the highway used to be. It wasn't very long but it was quite isolated. So we will leave you with a few pics after the jump.

Memorial Day Weekend 2014 Part 1

With the sun out, the temperatures up, and a three day weekend we decided it was the perfect time to stay home and work on the yard jump in the Green Monster and go exploring! With only a basic starting point in mind, but no real destination, it was one of the most relaxing weekends in a long time.

Make the jump to see pics and read about the first day of the long weekend.

First Weekend with RubiRock: Windmills, concrete beacons, and a hidden creek.

With all the wet weather on our side of the Cascade Mountains, we decided to head east until we found sunshine. About 100 miles is all it took.

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First Weekend with Rubi Rock: Evens Creek ORV Park

When you buy a vehicle for the purpose of driving off road, well, the first thing you want to do is take it off road. Gotta make sure it works as expected, right? That's what we told ourselves anyway.

Introducing RubiRock.

Debbie gets an upgrade to her wheels... and tires and axles and lockers and transfer case and one very important decal on the hood.

First Weekend in Spring 2014

The first day of spring this year was March 20. What better way to welcome it in than a trip around the area at various places we enjoy. The first weekend we saw great weather and open skies while there was still a chill in the air. We first headed out to NF-70, one of our favorite roads to start out on where we met the elk in the picture above. We wanted to see just how far the snow had retreated and check out the road conditions. We headed up into the hills, then back into town the next day for a lazy walk around the Microsoft Campus where the flowers were in full bloom. We finished up the weekend with a trip to the Marymoor Park to let Emma play with other dogs.

Make the jump to see lots more pics of the first weekend in spring!

Exploring Old Dominion

Old Dominion is perhaps one of the most prominent mountains around the Colville region. Just to the east of town, it towers over everything else in the area.

While on a trip to visit the homestead Jesse and Debbie's Father decided to head up there since neither one had been up there in the years that either had lived there.

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North Cascades Scenic Highway Just Before Winter Closure

The North Cascades Scenic Highway is one of the most spectacular drives in Washington State. Whenever we get the chance, this is the route we take to go visit family. It closes every winter because of avalanche danger. We decided that with winter well on the way, yet the highway still open, we needed to see what it looked like up here with snow.

More pictures and story after the jump.

Raymond, South Bend, and Ocean Shores

Debbie had an assignment for work one Sunday in Raymond, WA. Rather than just make the trip there, work, then drive back home, we chose to make a weekend trip out of it spending time in Raymond, South Bend, as well as traveling up the coast to Ocean Shores. November brings wind and rain to this area, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves.

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Exploring an Old Barn

Over the years, whenever we've seen an old barn along the freeway, we've always thought it would be fun to go explore it. But when you take the freeway, by the time you get to the next exit it is either to far away to backtrack, or you have forgotten about it.

When you take the side roads, that is not the case. Between Spokane and Wenatchee there are thousands of acres of farmland and quite a number of these old barns sitting just off the road a little ways making for a great opportunity to explore. When you step into one of these old barns it is a lot like stepping back in time. You can often find remnants of the past. Long forgotten pieces of equipment, parts, tools, and sometimes papers that show just how long the barn has been there and what it was used for.

Wild Horse Monument

Along the Columbia River overlooking Vantage, WA is a brilliant steel sculpture of wild horses. We've driven past this artwork perhaps a hundred times and had never stopped. On one of our recent trips across Washington to visit family we decided to stop and take a closer look.


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Over Stampede Pass

Andy is a good friend of our who also does a significant amount of back country exploring. However he does it on two wheels instead of four.

He had mentioned there used to be a route from Greenwater, WA on highway 410, through the Cascades to Easton, WA on Interstate 90, and he wanted to see if it still existed.


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Skate Creek Road

Our good friend Andy let us know about a road that is open during the summer between Packwood, WA and Eatonville, WA named Skate Creek Road. On a sunny summer day, Debbie and I decided to go drive this road and do a little forest service road exploration. We weren't disappointed.





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Trip back to the Homestead.

Even though we live in the Seattle area, both of our roots are in the small town of Colville, WA. Colville is located in north eastern Washington in a place where there is lots of sunshine in summer, lots of snow in winter, and enough outdoor activities to keep a person busy for a lifetime. Debbie's family still owns a small farm nearby this town and we regularly make the trip to go see them. When we are there, we make sure to spend time exploring our old haunts as well as finding places we didn't see when we lived there.

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Long Way to Whistlin' Jack

Whistlin' Jack Lodge and Restaurant is a nice little place along highway 410 in the Cascades. It's a pretty common stop for people heading over the spectacular Chinook Pass. It sits along the Naches river and is a great place to get breakfast and take a break from the road. Because Chinook pass closes during the winter, the only way for those on the west side of the state to reach it, is to go over Snoqualmie pass to the north or White pass to the south, then double back. But during the summer, this is another spectacular drive that Washington State offers with breath taking views of mountains, canyons and the ever present Mount Rainier. You don't need a Jeep to get here and enjoy the views since it is a state highway. You really don't need an excuse to take this drive. All you need to do is want to see some of the best our state has to offer.

But if you have a vehicle that can take a dirt road, there are hundreds of miles of options to take you across the Cascades. When we found ourselves badly in need of some escape, we packed up a lunch in a cooler, filled the thermos with coffee, loaded ourselves and Emma into the Green Monster and headed out for a day of enjoying the sun and solitude that can be found by taking the long way.




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Powerline Trails outside Duvall, WA

Running between Duvall, WA and Sultan, WA are some high voltage power lines carrying electricity from one of our many hydroelectric facilities scattered about the area.

Word went out from the Around The Sound Jeep Club that the gate across private land used to access the power line trails was now open. They arranged a meeting time and place in Duvall, WA from where they would head up and explore these trails for the day.

It was open to everyone, not just club members. All you had to do was provide  a couple of items to be donated to a local charity. So armed with a couple of cans of soup, it was off to Duvall.

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North Cascades Highway

The North Cascades Highway is quite possibly the most beautiful drive in Washington. Whenever we can, this is the route we take home from visiting family.

It's not a year long route though. With an annual snowfall of 15 feet as well as several avalanche zones, it is impossible to keep the route safe for travel for close to six months of the year.

Radar Dome (Across Washington Part 3)

Teenage life is so full of drama!

Radar Dome is an abandoned radar and monitoring station that was active from 1952 until 1960. As an active monitoring station of the Air Defense Command of the US Air Force, it's purpose was to identify and track all unidentified aircraft. Once it was decommissioned in 1960, it was abandoned and left to fall apart on it's own. To this day you can still wander through the buildings, find bits of coal, and see where the radar itself was located.

We decided to go explore it, taking our youngest daughter as well as her friend along with us. After a quick stop at subway and topping off of the gas tank, we headed up into the hills just east of Colville.

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Rocky Lake, WA (Across Washington Part 2)

Rocky Lake is a small lake and campground near our hometown of Colville, WA. In general it is a quite little lake with a couple of farm houses near by and a few miles of trails you can hike on. It is a great area for a picnic if you don't mind mosquitoes. It's fun to stop and hike around and is very typical of what you find in north eastern Washington. Unlike the central and south parts of the state, there are plenty of trees here and enough rain to keep. It's not too far from civilization.