Yup. It's that pretty. We got to hike amongst hoodoos (yes, that's the technical name):
Although, honestly, they have some inclines there. North Cascades knows nothing of switchbacks - no joke:
Oh, did we mention how cold it was out there? Yup, winter.
Icicles. Yeah.
It was so cold, the trees were trying to get away from the ground...
But the hoodoos were pretty nice.
The trees were pretty cool looking, too, actually.
And hey, they had wilderness - that counts for a lot...
Seriously, though - it was an awesome experience. The park is beautiful, and there was a lot of cool programming (astronomy, geology, etc etc etc) to keep us busy. I think my brain is full after trying to cram a season's worth in a month - but there was so much cool stuff to learn!
There are some ideas to steal. The "I hiked the hoodoos" program was pretty cool - I hiked all but one of the nine. Aren't I awesome?
Or just plain goofy.
Or just normal...
A few side notes. They put us in a house that was meant for four people. It was big, we are not used to big, so we ended up doing this:
We also aren't used to so many people (did we mention that the North Cascades are the 6th least visited National Park in the nation, and the 2nd least visited in the lower 48?), so what did they do? They sent us to Zion, the 8th most visited National Park in the nation, for solar viewing at an Earth Day festival:
Actually, it was fun. Nice to get lots of interest!
And we had a good party as we were about to take off. Jeff and our boss, Kevin, danced to Stop In the Name of Love together.
Okay, it was xbox, or some sort of game like that. What would we know, right?
Anyway, it was a fantastic month, but my brain needs a break. Noticed the lack of witty comments? Yup. I've been a bit of a slobbering mess since I got home, but we've only been unpacking - not a lot of brain cells necessary.
And now, off to North Cascades again! We're in Stehekin for another year - if you would like to visit, let us know - we have a guest room in our lake-view apartment. Seriously. Can't beat it, folks!
