u/nbnfpsor

On a trail to see huge waterfalls.

...And here's the rest..

Framed waterfalls. Fissures in the rock. Big falls into the ice that makes the ice caves. Very small ice cave opening. There's a (very small) person to the right of the opening, by the grey ice. Ribbon like falls. Wonderful natural area. Enchanted Valley. Lovely reflections! (I love lovely reflections). Note the ripples in this one, a fish came up and grabbed an insect just before I clicked. Still waters run psychedelic. Great day in the hills. Bugs weren't bad on the trail, they were quite bad in the parking lot. The skunk cabbage was almost all in the secondary stage, no odor (major bummer). In the Mt Dickerman reflection shot in the preceding Part 1 post one can see a lone yellow skunk cabbage spadix standing out of the water. What else, the Stilly was quite low already. Not much volume left. We're going to have a terrible drought this summer. Peace.

Monday I went for a motorcycle ride to the Big 4 picnic area. It was more of a 'going for a cycle ride' day than a day hiking day. I did do the Ice Caves trail, a very modest day hike ~ 2.2 miles round trip. The ice caves , the big attraction of this hike, are not formed yet. There's a little opening showing at the bottom of the ice. I have 22 pictures I want to share and since the Reddit limit is 20 I'm breaking up this post into 2. Therefore there are 11 pics here. 😁. A few notes on the pics:

Big 4 massif(?), boardwalk. Waterfalls! Waterfalls Galore. Big 4 in the melt off season is a spectacular spot. The center non contiguous fall is at least 1500 feet, maybe closer to two thousand. Mt Dickerman with reflection. South Fork of the Stillaguamish River. Aluminum foot bridge over the river. Ice Creek flowing thru the woods to the river. Lovely. Beautiful mossy forest. Big blow down on the trail. These trees were not here the last time I walked this trail, which wasn't long ago, last month (?).

It's not really a pond. A stream comes off a nearby mountain and goes into a delta effect with a bunch of slowly moving pools of water spreading out before going into the river. I'd call it a Mere.

I'd swag this non contiguous fall is at least 2000 feet. Also it's a seasonal fall.

I always have liked this view and effect. Nice examples of 2 different kinds of weathered exposed rock (perhaps, I could be wrong, just an amateur observation) on either side of the cleft (past the tree belts). One looks blocky to me and one striated. And the cleft always draws my eye.

Really good time of the year for riding by me.

Tolt-MacDonald Park.

Couldn't resist a reflections pic.

Very nice day after a bit. Been a cool last 4 days but we so needed some rain.

Another great day at the park. Can't remember what kind of bush this is.

A river runs through it. This is lower Eagle Falls on the South Fork of the Skykomish River in the western Washington State Cascade Mountains. Nicely shaped rocks.

Really nice Whidbey Island day tour today. Temps varied from 79 to 60! Yes, down to brrrr 60 degrees with a pretty strong wind. The west side of the island was a whole nother clime from tropical like Coupeville. Coupeville note: a totally tame deer just casually standing around on Front Street, no hurry, no care.

Was strolling around Coupeville this afternoon, got to chatting with another oldster, he opined 'this is as fine a day as any in Hawaii'. And it really was. Almost too hot in the sun for decrepit me. I like how Mt Baker ghosts out on the right edge of this (poor, sorry, cheapo phone) pic.

I parked my bike a couple of spots over. Really clean beautiful example of the genre. The owner happened by and we chatted. He imported it from Canada. This model was never sold in the USA. He said less than 800 of these were ever made. Said when he got it it was a survivor and he did a complete restoration. Looks great. Sounds great. Tastes great. Vaguely reminds me of a 1983 Honda Nighthawk I had, my first bought new motorcycle. Has that early 80's vibe.

I was on my bike and stopped for a lil walk around Coupeville, always some good eye candy strolling around on a summer day (and there was!). A couple of spots over from where I parked, Ta Da, 67 Barracuda. Always have been very partial to any 64-69 Cudas, my first car was a 65 Cuda in rare copper with 273 commando, dual point distributor and everythang! Auto on the floor, of course. I forgot to take a pic of the interior of this one, really clean. Has that super nice center console with torqueflite like all the groovy mopars. No idea on the motor, nobody around to chat with. And to think, in 69, this exact same car, innocuous convertible cuda could be had with a super commando 440! What a hoot. Total sleeper. My favorite mopar mill is a 70 440, ask me why 😁.