Snoqualmie Falls

Seattle is awesome! Dan and I joined up at Seatac airport a little after noon today. We picked up the car, checked into the hotel and hit the road to find Snoqualmie Falls. It was just a short distance, about 30 minutes or so north from the hotel and was well worth the drive.

First we stopped at the overlook and took in the breathtaking birds-eye view of this impressive waterfall. Thank goodness I had changed into my tennis shoes before leaving the hotel, because we we walked down the winding river trail all the way to the bottom of the gorge for another view of the falls. It was rocky, steep and wet with the misty over spray. And Cold! It's quite different here from the sizzling weather I just left back East.

The trail to the riverside is dark and mystical. It's lushly lined with tall ferns and huge old moss-draped Cedars and Douglas Firs. And the Rhododendrons are in bloom. Several large spectacular displays of dusty pink and hot scarlet jumped out at us as we passed by the visitor center.

The two of us snapped photos here and there along the way and when we reached the bottom of the gorge, we stood there for quite a while just taking in the scene and the sound of it. Boy, the walk back up was a real huffer puffer; we were glad when we finally reached the top by the visitor center again. By the time we did, Dan and I were pretty hungry because we hadn't bothered to stop for lunch all day. We decided it was finally time to grab something to eat. But unfortunately the restaurant next to the falls was hosting a wedding so it was closed to the public. That was too bad because we sure would have had an amazing view while we enjoyed our meal.

Instead we climbed into our car and headed back into the small town of Snoqualmie. It's a sweet little old town, right out of a picture book. The main street is lined with buildings on one side and a graveyard of old rusted train cars on the other...with the mountain as it's backdrop.

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We stumbled on a little Italian restaurant with authentic AND DELICIOUS food. I even had a nice glass of wine. And they seated us near the window, so we had an amazing view after all! Instead of a scene of the falls over dinner, we enjoyed the magnificence of that giant purplish blue peak of a mountain!