UPDATED: A Monday yesterday and BlogWife had a well-deserved day off, at home with BlogDaughter. So Dad and BlogSon, a.k.a. kidgoat Max, got to ramble on high. The ramp to I-5 from the West Seattle Bridge was backed up a few miles, so never mind about Mount Pilchuck, as I had imagined. Instead we cut across Beacon Hill and via the Rainier Ave. on-ramp went out I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass and Snow Lake Trail #1013, hard by the Alpental ski area. We'd never been here before, though it's a quite popular hike. Even on a summer weekday, the trail is heavily used. Still, it's well worth it. Snow Lake is a six-mile round trip with an elevation gain of about 1,700 feet to a saddle, from which you descend a few hundred feet via switchbacks to a lovely alpine lake surrounded by Cascade mountain peaks. Picnic at one or another of the nooks on or perches just above the lake; and explore the camp area (marked, off the main trail) for additional vistas. If time permits, head a few miles further on to Gem Lake. As you traverse the saddle and head down into the lake basin, you enter the glorious and vast Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, a place to which to return again and again.

Naturally, I took a few photos on our hike to and from Snow Lake. The trailhead is 45 minutes due east of Seattle (directions here).

The view on the way up, including Chair Peak.

Coming down from the saddle into the lake basin, some new peaks come into view.

The backdrop for our picnic lunch, looking back again at Chair Peak.

By the time we had finished eating and puttering around, there were few other visitors up at the lake or on the trail back down. It had been moderately hard going for Max at first, what with the heat and some flies, and no walk in the park for me either.

But Max bucked up and as always when hiking, welcomed the payoff upon arrival at the destination. I know he's happy when he reverts into full-on junior biologist/geologist mode, or parks himself by a pond to make ripples in the water (below, left).

Our outing was capped as we drove back home, 40-plus miles west to Seattle, the orange-pink setting sun burning above.

We came out of the I-90 tunnel through north Mercer Island into Seattle from the last section of the floating bridge across Lake Washington.

A wailing tune from Jamaican jazz guitarist Ernest Ranglin's CD with Senagalese singer/guitarist Baaba Mal titled "In Search of the Lost Riddim," one that was on one of my not-quite-dessicated and most melodious cassettes, came to a sharp close.

Fluorescent-rimmed clouds over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains came quickly into view, above. Max looked up suddenly from his perusal of our invaluable "Beyond Mount Si" hiking book by John Zilly, and became spellbound.

As we continued on, turning south onto I-5 from eastbound I-90, toward the fast-approaching feeder into the West Seattle Bridge, Max - who though very dear, can nonetheless be a real tough sell a whole lot of the time - looked at the western sky and exulted, "Daddy, Daddy, if there were a definition of electric clouds, this would be it."

You really had to be there. But it looked somewhat like this - only the clouds were puffier.

For all its problems (and they are not inconsiderable) Seattle is a great place to live, and raise children. Especially children like Max.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SEATTLE, HIKING, SNOW LAKE, SNOQUALMIE PASS, ALPINE LAKES WILDERNESS AREA, HIKING WITH CHILDREN, GEM LAKE, ERNEST RANGLIN, IN SEARCH OF THE LOST RIDDIM, BAABA MAL, SENEGAL, BEYOND MOUNT SI, JOHN ZILLY

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 15, 2006 09:18 PM

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