Last of Summer

Last weekend we drove up to the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest at the base of Mt. Rainier for the day. Ryan went on a mountain bike ride and the kids and I had a picnic and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. I really wanted to go back there camping, but am expecting rain this weekend, so we probably won't go. We went to Big Creek campground, which ended up being unmaintained after summer. There was one camp set up, but no one around, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. There was a pretty little creek running alongside and a mountain and some beautiful trees (as usual for Washington).

I had fun playing with the camera and got some good shots of Kim. This was one of my favorites. I'm not sure what this structure was supposed to be for, but she loved to climb on it.


I am not so good at taking pictures in my own direction. This is the best of the ones I got of Glade in the backpack.


I thought this one was really nice highlighting Kimberly's beautiful blue eyes.


I had to put this one in since it is kind of characteristic of her. (Told you I had fun playing with the camera and taking pictures.)


We hiked a little way up the trail Ryan rode (it left from the campground) and found this fun bridge. We ended up playing on it for about 20 minutes (variations of the billy goat gruff story).


After Ryan got back from a really great ride we had another picnic so he could eat.


We went on another little hike back to the bridge and a little past it to a beautiful meadow with some cool trees. I saw a stump that was partially hollow, but Kim scored the find of the day when she looked the other way and found this cool hollow tree. Looks like someone cut the top square to make a better door. Both the kids thought it was fun.



It was hollow all the way up. Pretty cool.


Back at the campground we found a plant with HUGE leaves. I still don't know what kind it is, maybe I should look it up.