Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls – Day 6

22 May 2023

When Joel picked me up at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport yesterday I had been awake since 4:30 am PDT on the 20th of May. I got into Fort Lauderdale around 10:51 EDT on the 21st of May, so that means I had been awake for approximately 16 hours. I was a zombie. I also had a backache from sitting on the plane for 7 hours of flight – even though they were first class seats with a little more leg room.

Joel dropped me off and I immediately found my A/C didn’t work. The thermostat apparently has batteries and they died while on the trip. I had to search through my file of manuals to find the thermostat manual to see which type of batteries and how to replace them. Then I had to reprogram the thermostat to finally get the A/C working.

After that it was grocery shopping, unpacking, storing the suitcase (ladder work), washing clothes, folding clothes, and cooking dinner. I was about to drop. I went to bed at 6 pm (fortified by two stiff bourbons) and promptly conked out. I got up twice to pee but immediately went back to sleep. I got out of bed at 8 am and realized I had slept soundly for 14 hours. I feel much better today!

First up was a phone call from Holy Cross oncology wanting to schedule a chemotherapy consultation. Darla had tried to contact me before my vacation and I had tried to reach her to respond but that didn’t happen. Today we agreed on the same date as my echocardiogram, just earlier than the echocardiogram (this Wednesday). I assume they will tell me what nastiness to expect. Without my knowledge, they had already prescribed two drugs: prochlorperazine (anti sickness – think sea sickness type of drug) and ondansetron (nausea and vomiting). Actually, both work similarly. I had CVS mail me the drugs. I hate going to CVS and the $4 shipping charge is worth not having to deal with the store.

Next was making entries into my check book app. It’s hard to keep checking accounts in order when on vacation and it takes time to go through credit cards and make entries from the trip. Invariably, something is forgotten and I have to do a “reconcile” entry after all is said and done.

I’ve been on the computer ever since I got breakfast put away. First, some insurance work for the flood insurance. They asked for a photo of my drivers license. I didn’t want to send the photo email so I asked about other forms of identification that showed my home address. No, that wouldn’t work. I had to have a photo that I could black out everything but the address. I scanned my license and did block out everything other than the address and my name. I sent it off. No, wait, you also have to send the photo with the issue date. That meant another scan, re-blocking, and re-sending with the caveat that Florida licenses do not have an issue date but they do have an expiration date. My mistake, they do have an issue date and I resent that photo. I’m waiting now for the same request with a different set of blocking parameters. God bless insurance companies because I certainly will not.

Next up were surveys from Amazon and the Salish Lodge. I normally don’t do surveys but I wanted to input my opinion on these, more so the Salish Lodge. I gave the staff and valet excellent reviews but panned the food. My final recommendation for the lodge was “Get a new chef.”

The appointments person at Holy Cross made four additional appointments for chemo infusions without notifying me. They just appeared on my Holy Cross App that I happened to check. Included in the appointments were day-after-infusion injections. I assume these to be one of two things: nausea or immune system boost. I’ll probably find out about that on Wednesday.

It was good to be back home. This is gonna be a very busy week with all the appointments. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Hiking in the woods and seeing waterfalls gave me peace of mind and I feel I am in a better place to start the process involved with my breast cancer treatment. I look forward to the time after the initial infusions that I might be able to get back on the trail and do some more hiking. Hopefully, I’ll get used to the chemo quickly and will have enough stamina to continue to get out in the woods.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos that didn’t make the original posts.

The hike back up the Snoqualmie Falls Tail – the trail was paved, for the most part and wheel chair accessible if you had someone to push you uphill.

Devil’s Club (*Oplopanax horridus*) – Snoqualmie Falls Trail

Devil’s Club (*Oplopanax horridus*) I particularly like the species name.

My first view of this was along the Avalanche Lake trail in Glacier National Park several years ago. The photograph above is the mature branch of another plant I found along the Twin Falls Trail. In Mississippi, they have a similar plant, Aralia spinosa, and it is called Devil’s Walking Stick. It’s really nasty. I can attest with a personal story. I was collecting plants at Tishomingo State Park and began an uncontrolled slide down a hill and I grabbed the first thing that came into view. That was a big mistake. Click on the link and you’ll see why.

Giant Horsetail (*Equisetum telmateia*) – I love horsetails. Over the years, I’ve found four species in the wild. They are an extremely primitive plant reproducing by spores but also by rhizomes. They can form additional rhizomes and new plants at the joints. The stems are hollow. I’ve got a few more to find. The Biota of North America Plant Atlas lists 18 species.

Giant Horsetail (*Equisetum telmateia*) – the rather odd looking structure on the plant is called a strobilus. Underneath the scales are numerous sporangia containing thousands of spores each.

Prolonged exposure of rapids on Snoqualmie River below the falls.

Thimbleberry (*Rubus parviflorus*) – I’ve photographed this two other times: the South Kaibab Trail on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and in Redwoods National Park, Yurok Loop Trail.

Red flowering currant (*Ribes sanguineum*) – the flower color varies from white to pink to really dark red. I’ve photographed this at MacArthur-Burney Falls State Park near Redding, CA on the Burney Falls Loop trail and at Rainbow Falls at North Cascades National Park near Chelan Lake.

Rainbow in the mist of the Snoqualmie Falls

One of those “night” photos of Snoqualmie Falls that the iPhone “corrected” to daylight. It was really quite dark when I made this photo.

Prolonged exposure of a cascade on the way to Franklin Falls.

I think this tree is a western red cedar. What is interesting to me was the trunk had been damaged and five branches came from the trunk and then some of those branches had branches. This plant has had a hard life.

Trail to Franklin Falls – it was a little muddy but otherwise an easy hike.

Franklin Falls – I hiked down as close as I could but any further and I was in danger of slipping. The older gentleman that I referred to in early posts was hiking with a buddy when the falls were frozen and the buddy fell through the ice into the water below. The older gentleman reached for him and pulled him to safety.

Siberian Spring Beauty (*Claytonia sibirica*) – when I first enrolled in a plant identification course back at Ole Miss, this was one of the first genera I identified. It was the more widely distributed *Claytonia* *virginica*. There are 26 species of *Claytonia* recorded for the U.S. So far, I’ve found seven.

Siberian Spring Beauty (*Claytonia sibirica*) – I first found this plant at Redwoods National Park several years ago. I didn’t recognize the genus at first and after walking a little further on the trail, the genus *Clayton*ia popped into my mind. Tricky thing, the mind.

May Lily or False Lily-of-the-Valley (*Maianthemum bifolium*) – this is a European plant that has escaped into the wild. There is some confusion as to the genus but you can still find it under this title. It tends to form large colonies and probably is considered a beautiful “nuisance.”

Herb-Robert (*Geranium robertaianum*) – another European import that seams to have made the noxious weed list.

Salmonberry (*Rubus spectabilis*) – my first view of this was in Redwoods National Forest on the Klamath Beach Trail. I kept seeing brilliant colored petals on the ground and I finally found one flower on the plant intact. This one was in pretty good shape. The petals seems to be very ephemeral on the flower.

Colt’s Foot (*Petasites frigidus*) – I’ve found this two other times. Once in Redwoods National Forest on the Klamath Beach Road and in North Cascades National Park on the Agnes Gorge Trail. I assume the common name comes from the very large leaves.

Along the Twin Falls Trail. A lot of western Washington, like western Oregon, can be classified as a rain forest. The requirement is 200 cm of rain a year. All but one in the U.S. is classified as temperate rainforests. I think this trail could qualify as a rainforest trail. Love the mosses!

The rainforests in the U.S. are Tongass National Forest in Alaska, Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, Chugach National Forest in Alaska, Redwoods National Park, Mount Hood Wilderness, Appalachian Temperate Rainforest in the southern Appalachians (north Georgia and western N.C.) Quinault Rain Forest in Olympic National Park, and the only tropical rainforest in the U.S., El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico. Of these, I’ve been in Hoh, Redwoods, and Appalachian Temperate.

Embarrassingly, this was an extra segment I did of the Twin Falls trail. I should have know better when I saw steps. I hate steps!

I’ve photographed roots before. There’s something about the pattern they make that is interesting.

This is one of the five waterfalls from Twin Falls. I think it more like a cascade than a waterfall but it apparently meets the definition for a fall in someone’s book..

Star flowered Lily-of-the-Valley (*Maianthemum stellata*) – two previous sightings: Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Redwoods National Park

The view coming back down from my extra trek on Twin Falls Trail. At least the scenery was excellent!

Getting ready to hit another switchback. Actually, the switchbacks were well done. I’ve been on some you want to kill the person who designed the trail.

Western Maidenhair Fern (*Adiantum aleuticum*) – this is a new species for me. I’ve probably seen it numerous times out west but just didn’t photograph it. Maidenhair ferns are really beautiful to me and I always enjoy when I run across them.

The Public Market in Seattle. It was pretty jam-packed with people. Note the woman with her mask almost on. I kept mine own the entire time.

The “eye” of Seattle. The whole dock area seemed to be undergoing some kind of transformation. I don’t know the comparison with the London eye but the carriages on the wheel were pretty good size.

Downtown Seattle is certainly very walkable – with a lot of hills. I had no intention of walking to the space needle from my hotel until I looked up and saw this view. I decided it was a nice day for an additional walk from the market.

When you get right up on the needle, it’s hard to get it all into view. I decided I better get this shot just in case.

The glass floors of the Space Needle. Some people had a hard time looking down. Many didn’t notice it because they were looking out and until someone pointed down, they didn’t know. Then they panicked.

Native American blankets on exhibit at the Chihuly museum.

The “Glass House” at the Chihuly museum.

I plant to blog updates to my cancer treatment so if that bothers you, this will be the last Salish Lodge/Snoqualmie Falls update.

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls – Day 5

20 May 2023

I just haven’t had any luck with food this trip. I had reservations for 6 pm at The Dining Room and I checked in with the hostess at 5:57 pm. She said my table would ready in a moment. Four other couples checked in after I did and they were all seated first. The restaurant was busy but when I was eventually seated at 6:20, there were plenty of empty tables that could have sat me. Maybe they were paying me back for not meeting my reservation on Wednesday night.

When I looked at the menu, absolutely nothing attracted me, particularly not the dishes I already sampled. The prices were ridiculous. I got up and left and headed into historic Snoqualmie.

I ended up at Buckshot Honey, a BBQ place. I ordered pulled pork sandwich with collard greens and baked beans with the day’s lager. All for only $44 + tip. It was pretty tasteless and I ended up eating the pork and a few sips of the beer.

Hopefully, Seattle will offer better fare.

The lodge has certainly picked up in traffic and guests. The valet parking was backed up and it looks like there are a lot of people spending the weekend. The lodge is nice but I probably would not stay here again if the opportunity arose. The staff are helpful for the most part, The Dining Room experience tonight notwithstanding, but it’s not worth the money.

I checked out of the lodge around 8 am and headed west to Seattle. Amazingly, traffic was light and I zipped into the city without any traffic snarls. I valet parked at the Paramount and left my luggage (too early for the room) and sat out to explore Seattle.

The hotel was built in 1996 so it’s 27 years old and even though it was renovated in 2008, it’s showing its age 15 years later. However, it’s clean and the staff are nice and it’s a place to rest before my red eye.

The desk clerk pointed me in the direction of the public market, often called Pikes Market even though Pikes is just one of many, many shops in the market. The place was packed.

I did eventually find Pikes and I had just walked away to buy some donuts for breakfast when someone, from the roar of the crowd, must have thrown a fish.

From the market, I headed down to the pier area and saw saw Seattle’s version of the “eye” and saw the Norwegian Bliss, a massive cruise ship.

From there I walked up Bell Street to 4th Ave and headed to the Space Needle. On the way there I saw the reflection of the needle in the windows of a building.

It didn’t look too busy so I walked up to the ticket window and asked if I could go in even though I had 2 pm reservations. She changed the ticket and into line I went. It was longer than I anticipated but they moved you through very efficiently. They certainly have learned how to do this over the years.

The needle was completed in April 21, 1962, 6 months after breaking ground. It’s 605 feet high and was renovated in 2018.

One up on the observation deck, I took a few photos and then went down one level and had lunch. You could order “bites” and a cocktail and sit while the revolving part of the needle changed the scenes for you.

This is a Lunar Calendar: smoked pineapple, jalapeño infused tequila, lime, with agave. Only $22!

What was neat was sitting at the table and watching the “restaurant” turn.

At first, you think you are sitting still and the glass wall is turning to the left.

In reality, when you look through the glass floor below you, you see the needle is turning to the right.

From the needle, I headed down to the Chihuly museum. I’ve seen his exhibits at Fairchild (twice) and his museum in St. Pete (once) and now the museum in his home base of Seattle. These were some of his most impressive pieces I’ve seen. All the better since I got $10 off my ticket with my Space Needle ticket.

I left Chihuly and looked for the entrance to the monorail.

I remember when the monorail was built and it was one of the first of its kind in the states. It opened on March 24, 1962, one month before the Seattle Worlds. Fair. Disney was first with their monorail in July 14, 1959 and it was the first in the U.S. Senior tickets in Seattle are $1.75 and it has only one – stop in downtown Seattle.

Monorail arriving at the station.

Seattle reminds me a lot of San Francisco in both temperature and walkability. I did over 3 miles today and it seemed much less.

Certain neighborhoods around the needle remind me of some of the broad boulevards of Paris.

One year in Paris I somehow found myself on Rue Lauriston, southwest of the Arc de Triomphe. They had unbelievably wide sidewalks along each side of the street with very cute apartments lining the street.

Once I got back to the hotel, a little after noon, I checked to see if my room was ready and it was. I will shower, rest, read, and then around 9 or 10 head to SeaTac for my red eye home.

Other than poor, expensive food, it’s been a great trip. I loved the hiking and the waterfalls. I can see myself coming back to this area for more hikes and more waterfalls.

Stay tuned!

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls – Day 4

19 May 2023

It seems you can’t escape your oncological team by flying to Washington. I got a call yesterday morning where the scheduler for Dr. Arnaout wanted to set the date for the first infusion of chemo for May 22nd. I told her I wasn’t a fan of that idea since the port surgery was scheduled for May 25th. She then suggested May 26th and I suggested I wanted the surgery to heal before the first infusion. We settled on June 5th. She anticipates it’ll take 4 or 5 hours for the first infusion. They administer it slowly to see if you have any side effects to the cocktail.

Then some good news. I had an email from Invitae this morning telling me that the first series of genetic tests came back negative. I still have an outstanding series that will probably be ready in a couple of weeks but at least I’m in the clear on the first set.

Instead of adjusting to the time change, I seem to be getting worse. After the hike yesterday I came back and napped. This morning, I was up again at 4:30 am. That could be because I went to bed at 6 pm. Can’t wait to see how I do on the red eye flight back home on Saturday.

Dinner last night was at The Attic again. The martini was good. So far this trip, the best meal I’ve had has been as McDonalds and it was a damn sight cheaper. Later, I’ll load up and travel to North Bend again for the Twin Falls trailhead. It’s 17 minutes from the lodge and is a 2.5 mile out and back hike with an elevation gain of 636 feet. That’s about double of the gain for my last two hikes, so it should be a challenge. It’s rated moderate but I find that term has a wide leeway as to meaning.

10:30 am

OK, I don’t how it is possible I’ve survived this long in the woods. I’m surprised some hiker hasn’t come upon my decayed body on some trail. I generally consider myself good with directions and knowing where I am but somehow I always seemed to get turned around on trails. It’s happened too many times to count. At least today, I didn’t get turned around. More about this later.

I drove to Twin Falls trailhead and got started on my hike at 8:20 am. I read up on this hike and I knew that I would follow the south fork of the Snoqualmie River for the first little bit of the hike. I started out with a knit cap and my jacket. The temperature was 55°F. I soon shed both the jacket and the cap.

You can see just a sliver of the river to the right. A lot of the canopy of the forest reminded me of a rain forest, fairly common in western Washington.

I also knew that I would make an approximate 400 foot climb up to get my first view of the falls.

It’s this view that give the falls their name. However, it probably is more accurate to call them quintuplet falls.

At the upper part of the falls, there are four smaller falls. The first is 45 feet, the second series is 20 feet, the third is 30 feet and then another 20 foot section. The main portion is 135 feet. None of the individual falls look alike, so there is no twining here.

Then I knew that you walked another section of the trail, steadily upward to view the 135 foot section from below. It’s called the lower falls view. I chose not to do that and instead decided to walk to the upper part first. That was another 500 feet in elevation. There is a bridge across the river at that point.

What I didn’t pay attention to is that the trail doesn’t end there. The Twin Falls trail goes for miles and miles. It eventually merges into the John Wayne Trail and the Homestead trailhead. I started up along the trail and dumbly kept climbing. In my defense, the park has only one sign – at the trailhead that says falls. There was no signage for the lower observation deck nor for the upper observation deck nor a sign saying the trail continued to the John Wayne trail. In the prosecution’s case, I should have remembered the bridge was the terminus of the part I wanted to accomplish.

You can see a guy sitting on the bridge (red shirt). As I walked past him I said “I feel your pain.” He broke out into laughter – and sympathy.

The view from the bridge back down from the way I came was pretty nice.

You really can’t see where the 135 foot section of the falls but it starts just to the left of the big rock.

Trust me, I’m more tired than I look in this photo!

Wildflower were abundant along the way. I added three to my lifetime list of plants.

Sweet-after-death/Vanilla leaf (Achlys triphylla) – a new species for me.

Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa) -not a new species for me.

Scouter’s corydalis or fumewort (Corydalis scouleri) – a new addition to my list.

It didn’t matter what part of the trail I was on – it was some of the steeper inclines I’ve hiked.

To my eyes, that looks like about a 30° incline from the switchback.

Then there were roots and steps. You know I hate steps.

In any case, I then decided to hike down to the lower part of the falls. After hiking a lot extra and turning around, I headed back down to the upper area and then down to the lower area. More stairs.

Most of the images I’ve seen of the falls show what is similar to a thin sheet of water coming over the rocks. This was gushing. Again with the spring melt. There is also a power plant at the very top of the series of falls but cannot be seen from the park.

Notice I used the belt on the pack to hold my gut in.

All in all, I hiked 3.69 miles (more than 1.2 miles than I needed to) with an elevation gain of 1001 feet. It took me 2.25 hours. Again, for perspective, AllTrails says the elevation gain is 636 feet to the top of the falls and the hike should only take a little over an hour. I added an additional 365 feet of elevation by overshooting the trail.

I’ve hiked a lot all over the U.S. and I think this is one of the more beautiful hikes I’ve done notwithstanding the idiocy of hiking and extra mile or two.

When I pulled in at 8:20, there were five cars in the parking lot. As the morning went on, I saw more and more people on the trail, many with dogs. At one point I stood on the side of the trail and let some 25 people pass before I continued. Some knew to yield to those going uphill and some didn’t. I always said good morning and sometimes got into conversations with the hikers. I really like that part – sharing experiences along the trail. I knew I’d met a lot of people going up the mountain as I descended but when I got to the parking lot, I was a little taken aback.

The line of cars went all the way of the hill and almost to the connecting road.

Tomorrow I head to Seattle. I have reservations to visit the Space Needle and then a trip to Pikes Market. Then I’ll be staying at the Paramount Hotel in downtown Seattle until around 10 pm and then the drive to the rental car return and catch the shuttle to SeaTac. I’ll spend time in the United Lounge until my 11:41 pm flight to Houston.

Tonight is another dining experience at The Dining Room. Can’t wait!

Stay tuned!

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls – Day 3

18 May 2023

In all my excitement in being back in the woods yesterday, I forgot to eat breakfast and lunch. That was probably a good thing after seeing some of the photos people took of me.

I even sucked my gut in on this one. This was taken around sunset. I wanted to see the falls at night since they spotlight them.

The Snoqualmie tribe runs Snoqualmie Park and gift shop and actually owns the Salish Lodge. The falls are a sacred site for the tribe and it’s now a part of their tribal land.

In exploring the area around the lodge, I asked about the wooden bridge across the very busy road next to the lodge. It’s overflow parking for the park. Over 1.5 million people visit the falls every year, second only to Mount Rainier. The desk clerk mentioned that at the upper end of the lot was the apiary for the lodge.

The lodge harvests the honey and uses it in their restaurants and sells it in the gift store. They plant specific flowering plants to influence the taste of the honey as well as help with the declining population of bees.

My massage was scheduled for 3 pm so I showed up in the Salish Lodge robe and slippers. After some quiet time in their meditation room, Jennifer took me back for a deep tissue massage. She did a decent job. It’s always interesting to see how different massage therapists perform. I’ve had many different massage therapists over the years with all my trips and each one does it slightly differently. No one seems to do a real deep tissue massage. I think they believe they will hurt you. I can easily tell them to ease up if they do, but they still don’t do real deep tissue.

I chose to eat at The Attic for dinner which keeps bankers hours. I think they want everyone to eat at the restaurant (higher prices). Actually, if you sit near the windows, you have an excellent view of the falls.

I ordered the margarita pizza and a vodka martini. The martini was excellent and the pizza was pretty good except for the lack of basil. That’s kinda the definition of a margarita pizza – the basil – and there was only one tiny flake of basil and it was stuck to the side of the pan, not on the pizza. Again, the food critic!

In any case, I forgot I had reservations for The Dining Room last night. I remembered I made two reservations while planning the trip but I don’t remember booking the third. As I was on my way to view the falls at night, I stopped by the hostess stand and apologized. She was very understanding. I felt even more guilty since there seem to be more guests at the lodge tonight than last night. I even have a couple next door to my room and to the credit of the lodge, you can’t hear anything from one room to the other.

The lodge aims spot lights at the falls at night and I wanted to see what it would look like. The problem is the only camera I’m using this trip is my iPhone. This version allows you to take photos in total darkness and so I had to figure out how to keep from getting “daylight” shots in darkness. I finally figured it out and here’s one result.

You can barely see the effects of the spotlights at the very top of the falls.

As I waited for sunset and nightfall, numerous couples and families came down to the viewing point and I ended up being the photographer for them. It was fun trying to get the families and the falls in the view. One little girl kept turning away back to the falls every time I tried to snap the photo.

I’m still on Fort Lauderdale time which means I got out of bed at 4:30 am (PDT). I was hungry and decided on breakfast around 6:30 but The Dining Room didn’t open until 8. That’s when I decided to hike Franklin Falls.

The falls are near the Snoqualmie pass just off I-90 in the Mount Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest. It was about a 35 minute drive to the trailhead from the lodge. Just as I passed the town (the historic part) of Snoqualmie, I passed a herd of elk grazing in a meadow. I didn’t slow down to photograph the herd. Eh! When you’ve seen one elk, you’ve seen them all.

The parking lot at the trailhead to the falls requires either a Discovery pass (never heard of it) or one of the other passes for national parks and forests. I have the lifetime senior pass but when I went to fill out the form, there was none available. I simply left my senior pass on the dashboard of the car. I’d read where the rangers were very particular about parking and wrote tickets. As fortune would have it, I met a ranger while on my way back down the trail and she said at this time of year, parking wasn’t an issue and what I did was fine.

When I stepped out of the car and grabbed my pack and walking stick, I realized it was cold. The temperature was actually 60F but it felt colder. I got an indication of what was to come in the parking lot for the disabled.

AllTrails reported hikers suggested cleats for the snow on the trail but fortunately, I didn’t need them. Spring had sprung.

The trail is a round trip of two miles and unlike yesterday, this was all uphill for 1 mile and then all downhill for the turn around. The trail was well traveled and clearly delineated.

A lot of work has gone into this trail and other than a little mud from the melting snow and some actual snow on the trail, it was an easy walk.

There were not a lot of plants blooming but I did run into an old friend.

Western Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americium)

I’ve found two species of skunk cabbage in my travels over the years and they thrill every time I see them. Skunk cabbage, when it is ready to sprout in the spring, generates enough heat to melt the snow around it and is one of the first blooms of spring.

The trail follows the south fork of the Snoqualmie River. There are numerous cascades along the way.

It’s pretty much one cascade after another as you work your way to the falls.

As I gained elevation, there was more snow on the trail.

The forest was mostly spruce and western red cedar. One tree really stood out.

You really can understand how large this tree is so I put my walking stick next to it to give you some perspective.

The base of the tree stretches all the way across the frame of the photo.

To me, this compares with the giant redwoods! I can now understand how you can purchase cedar beams and boards. One tree this size would probably construct and entire house.

I finally got to the falls.

I met an older gentleman (my age, probably) at the base of the falls and we got to talking. He said he thought this was the greatest flow of water he’s seen.

Just to the left of the falls is I-90. They have a massive bridge that spans the area. I didn’t want to get the bridge in the shot.

The gentleman told me he comes all the time and he showed me photos of the fall completely frozen in winter. At certain times in the winter, they are completely frozen and he said he’s seen ice climbers on the falls. He recently stopped technical climbing but admitted to still repel occasionally but he didn’t let his wife know he did this. I told him I would keep his secret from his wife.

I had a couple of protein bars and offered him to join me for breakfast but he declined. He did get a photo of me, however.

After he left, I took a few more photos and then headed back. It’s funny how differently the trail looks returning. As I hiked up, I kept an eye out for wildflowers and did find one Western trillium.

I first ran into this plant while in Redwoods National Park. What’s interesting about it is as the day goes on, the bloom turns from white to pink. On the way down, I noticed more and more of these in bloom that I missed on my way up.

I also didn’t notice another flower in bloom on the way up but saw it on the return.

White Marsh Marigold (Caltha leptosepala)

A few years ago, I found the yellow version of this (Caltha palustris) growing in a ditch on my way to connect with a seaplane to Isle Royale National Park. Both are fantastic and the white one is a new species for my list of plants. By my calculations, I now have three new species to add to my list on only two days of hiking.

Maybe I was too focused on bears. The woods have both grizzly and black bears. I sadly didn’t see either (yeah!).

I did see a couple of small waterfalls feeding into the cascades below.

Both on the way up and on the way back I saw cabins. Since this is national forest, I wondered if they were rented out by the U.S. Forest Service. The ranger I met informed me they were all privately owned. I assume they were grandfathered in to be allowed to be in the forest.

Some of the cabins were simple and some were quite large and a little out of place in their architecture.

I did find one peculiarity on the trail that was a puzzlement.

Someone with a little too much time on their hands whittled a pattern into a stump, trailside. I guess you could use it to clean the mud off your boots.

As I got back down the mountain, I again saw the older gentleman. He was looking at closed sign on the Denny Creek road that intersects the trailhead. He was photographing a sign that had a phone number on it to ask about opening. He then said they planned to keep this closed and one other. What he said next threw me. “At least it’ll keep the illegals out.” What illegals? Hikers? Illegal Mexican immigrants? Aren’t we a little far away from the Mexico/US border? However, we are very close to the Canadian border so perhaps he was interested in keeping out those sly illegal Canadian immigrants.

Overall, I hiked 2.54 miles and gained 387 feet in elevation. What has to be taken into account is the elevation at the falls is 2,580 feet above sea level. People tell me that when you get above 2,000 feet, you begin to feel the effects of the elevation and I started at 2,210 feet. I seemed to have faired well. I didn’t have to have any rest stops on the way up. Also, fortunately, my knees didn’t bother me on the way down. Win! Win!

On the return trip I had a McBreakfast at North Bend, WA. The protein bar didn’t last long.

Tomorrow, I may head to Twin River County Park and do some hiking. They have two waterfalls along the same trail. They can’t possibly be as spectacular as my first two on this trip.

As I sit on my patio typing this, the breeze wafts the aroma of the killer weed. I forget that marijuana is legal in Washington state and people seem to be pretty open about it.

Stay tuned!

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls – Day 2

17 May 2023

5 am

Some of the luster came off the Salish Lodge last night, at least in the food aspect. I had 6:30 pm reservations at The Dining Room. They seated me at a table near the window although there wasn’t much of a view of anything but a closed off terrace.

The problem was not with the servers – they were very attentive. It was the food. I decided to go with the prix fixe menu.

I went with the wine pairings and started with the spring asparagus soup as the appetizer. It was just OK and you could, if you thought very hard about it, taste the asparagus. The cedar plank salmon was a total disappointment. I asked the waitress if it was wild caught and she said yes. I should have also asked if it was fresh. I swear it was from a previously frozen piece of fish. As far as the crème brûlée is concerned, I’ve had much better. My friend Holley hates crème brûlée and I can understand why with this dish. I have reservations again for this place on Thursday and I think I’ll cancel them and try their other restaurant, The Attic. Hopefully they can’t mess up a burger.

I will admit this is the quietest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. I usually complain unceasingly about noisy hotels but I think I must be the only guest on the lower (1st) floor. I don’t even hear anyone above me. Maybe no one stayed here last night other than me.

I’m still on Fort Lauderdale time. I went to bed at 8:30 pm PDT (11:30 pm EDT) and got up at 4:30 am PDT (7:30 EDT). I decided to go look at the falls at sunrise. You really couldn’t see much. A mist hung in the air below the falls.

There was so much mist that some areas of the walkway literally ran with rivulets of water. You can feel the mist from the falls, even outside my hotel room. The falls are 270 feet in height.

Of course, the falls are part of an hydroelectric power plant. A dream of Charles Baker, the plant was completed in 1899. It was the first completely underground power plant constructed in the world. In 1910, a subsequent power plant was constructed down river from the first.

Part of the intake valves and part of the underground power plant above the falls.

Today I plan to hike the Snoqualmie Falls Trail, a 1.4 mile trail to the river level. Coming back up is the equivalent of walking upstairs to the top of a 30 story building. Pray for me.

9:20 am

God, it’s good to get back into the woods!

At the bottom of the trail with a view of the falls from river level. I’ve got to do something about that gut!

I made it! Even better, I made it all the way back up to the top without stopping. The total hike down and back was 1.9 miles with a 371 foot elevation gain. It took me 1 hour and 23 minutes but that was because I was stopping every few minutes to take wildflower photos.

This trail is pretty much all downhill. That worked for me since any lengthy hiking I do downhill hurts my knees. Getting this over first and then hiking back up was easy on the joints.

The trail down is steep. There are a lot of 5% grades and even steeper in some areas.

You really can’t tell from this photo but it is really steep going down. Mostly Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir provided a shaded canopy.

Along the trail was a profusion of wildflowers and I even got to add two to my lifetime list that I had never seen in the wild before.

Fringe Cups (Tellima grandiflora) – a new recording for me. These pretty much lined the trail all the way to the river.

Pacific Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum tenuipes) – again, pretty much lined the trail.

Youth on Age (Tolmiea menziesii) – a new recording.

Once at the bottom of the trail, you could hear the Snoqualmie River roaring. At the edge of the water was the hydroelectric facility built in 1901. It has undergone several expansions and additions, the latest in 1957 and 2010.

Feeding the hydroelectric plant is water from above through two huge penstocks (pipelines).

The source of the water through these penstocks is actually above Snoqualmie Falls through underground tunnels.

The Snoqualmie River has a lot of rapids on it and there is a boat launch near the parking lot of Snoqualmie Falls Park for people who wish to run the rapids.

There’s a long set of stairs and walkway to the observation point of the falls.

I stopped at the entrance to Snoqualmie Falls Park on my way back up. I’ve been noticing an unusual feature in the signage. In Canada, signs are in English and French. Here at the lodge and the park, signs are in English and Snoqualmie. The Snoqualmie are a federally recognized tribe of the Snoqualmie Valley and part of the Coast Salish people.

On the way back to my room, I stopped at the registration desk and got some information about trails in the area, the tourist/historic town of Snoqualmie, and also some more waterfalls. One highly recommended falls was Franklin Falls at Snoqualmie Pass. Apparently, three days ago there was snow and some people have reported on AllTrails that it’s icy. It’s only two miles out and back to the falls. I may try that tomorrow. It means I’ll leave the lodge area and explore new terrain!

Lunch, sadly, was at The Dining Room, a buttermilk fried chicken sandwich. It was buried under an aioli, pickles and cheese so I assume it was a chicken sandwich. They were very proud of their biscuits with butter and jam and served them as a compliment to your meal but I found the biscuits hard and dry. My next calling is as a food critic.

I have a massage scheduled for 3 pm today at the lodge spa.

Stay tuned!

Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls

16 May 2023

Forget breast cancer, forget chemotherapy, forget mastectomy, it’s time for a little escape!

Several years ago, Michel and Nancy were returning from an Alaska trip and made a detour to the Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls. Michel showed me some photos and I immediately put it on my bucket list. Trust me when I say the trouble (and expense!) is worth it.

My morning started at 4 am. Just to be sure I waked in time, I set my alarm. I usually always wake up well before the alarm goes off but for some reason it startled me out of my sleep. After a token cup of coffee, shower, shave, and final pack, Joel picked me up and delivered me to Fort Lauderdale International Airport for a 7:46 am departure. I admit, I splurged for this trip and purchased first class tickets. About the only benefit is more leg room, more room to store your baggage, and a free meal – such as they are. Oh yea, one more benefit – you can board before most of the others. But you are still cattle being pushed through a chute.

It turned into a seven and a half hour flight, more likely eight with delays. They couldn’t get the fuel truck to fuel the plane in my Denver stop over. We still made it to SeaTac at the designated 1:30 pm time line. From there it was an airport bus to the rental car facility. Seattle puts all rental cars under one roof and I have to admit it was convenient. After an upgrade, I braved Seattle’s I-405. The speed limit was 60 mph and I was doing 16 mph. There wasn’t anything wrong. It just seems Seattlites don’t know how to drive any more than south Floridians.

In any case, I finally found the lodge. The outside is pretty nondescript and you think “Oh boy! This place is a dump!” It’s not. I don’t know when I’ve had a nicer room.

It’s called the Salish Lodge and Spa for a reason.

The lobby is pretty ordinary. So’s the reception desk.

But they really pay attention to details. When you check in you are offered either champagne or a slushy (with vodka) or wine. In the room they provide gourmet coffee and for the fire pit outside, a little surprise.

After all that sitting (four hours to Denver), walking a million miles in the Denver airport from C terminal to get to the subway to A terminal and three hours from Denver to SeaTac, I needed some fresh air.

Right next to the lodge is Snoqualmie Falls Park with an overlook of the falls. It’s breathtaking!

You can see the lodge in upper left. Just to the right of the lodge is the power plant. The reason for a May trip is that the spring thaw is on and the falls are at their peak flow.

You can get a sense of the power of the falls from the movie.

Tonight, I dine at the lodge in their aptly named The Dining Room. It looks to be delicious and maybe I’ll get the taste of airline food out of my tastebuds. There may be a glass of wine or two after my arduous journey. Or three.

I haven’t decided about tomorrow. I may just vegetate or I may try to visit some other falls in the area.

Stay tuned!