The first time I saw Silver Falls was in the spring of 2020 in the middle of the Covid shut down. Like most of the country, Scott and I were suffering from severe cabin fever and were looking for an outdoor place to enjoy.

We heard the National Parks were closed to cars, but open to foot and bike traffic and decided to walk into the Stevens Canyon entrance of Mount Rainier National Park. Grove of the Patriarchs is just a short distance from the entrance and we knew we could easily walk there.

I love tree blossoms in the spring. Flowering plumb blossoms, cherry blossoms, and apple blossoms. I love an early morning walk with the smell of freshly cut grass and the sweet scent of tree blossoms in the air. Nothing announces that spring has arrived quite like the tree blossoms do.

As soon as I opened the car door, I could hear them barking. They’re here! Scott and I grabbed our cameras and made our way down the dock.

It was Sunday afternoon, and we didn’t have time or energy for a full-on adventure but still wanted to get out of the house.  We picked up some coffee and headed for the town of Allyn, Washington hoping to see some sea lions.

The first time I saw a field of tulips was a complete accident. Our family of 4 was out exploring near Mossyrock Washington during spring break and we happened to drive right past them. A sign on the edge of the field said we were welcome to walk through the tulips as long as we didn’t pick them or damage them. We enjoyed them very much.

Fields of daffodils were showing up in my social media. Spring was finally here, and I really wanted to go see them for myself. Scott and I couldn’t get away in the upcoming weekend, so we were thinking of making an evening of it. We saw a window of good weather in the forecast, so we decided to make a run for it.

It’s Friday night and Scott and I were trying to decide where to go adventure the next day. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve gotten out of town, and we were ready to go! After exploring a few locations on our computers, we decided to check out an area near Lake Wynoochee in the Olympic National Forest. It looked like there may be several waterfalls to check out along with some forest trails thick with moss and ferns. We had a general location but couldn’t really locate a good map.  Finding what we’re looking for could prove to be a challenge, but we were up for it.

Another day to adventure! We were ready to move further along the Cascade Loop.

We were on a quest to find a waterfall we’d read about but never seen before.

When we woke up to unexpected sunshine, I knew our plans for the day were going to change.

We didn’t really feel like hiking (there are tons of hiking trails along this stretch of highway) so we decided to drive along the North Cascades Highway, and stop when something looked interesting.