We camped in a park on the east side of Priest Lake. It was right on the lake, with a beautiful sandy beach. First thing I did after we set up camp was go kayaking on the lake with my daughter Ruth. The sun was shining, the sky was deep blue, and there were fluffy little clouds blowing around. But the wind was blowing just a little too hard for my taste and I started to get nervous about the size of the waves on the lake, so we paddled back to shore. Other than the wind on the lake, the weather was wonderful.
On Saturday morning we did our 'big' breakfast. One morning per camping trip we get out the eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, pancake mixes, or whatever and fix a big breakfast. We used to do it every morning, but I couldn't take that much cholesterol in my diet every day. I'm not used to eating like that for breakfast. We had electricity at this park, so Sue got out the waffle iron. I'd brought some spicy chicken sausages I'd found at Costco, and we had hashbrowns and scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. Yum, it was good!
After cleaning up the breakfast mess, we all packed ourselves, and a lunch, into the trucks (gotta have 4 wheel drive where we were going) and drove up into the mountains on logging roads. We were headed for a specific place sweet hubby and I had found last October. It has some incredibly awesome geologic stuff going on and we were dying to show it to daughter Ruth, the geology major.
She was suitably impressed. In fact, she got downright excited about the whole thing. Got out the hammer and started pounding on boulders. Lots of granite. In fact, the 3 mountains we were in the middle of were pretty much solid granite.
There's a trail that goes up into the valley between these mountains. We decided to hike up it until we'd had enough hiking, and turn back. We being sweet hubby, daughter Ruth, my dogs Tommy and Morgan, brother in law Dan, his wife Sue, nephew Nathan, and nephew Brendan. We didn't know what was up there. That's part of the adventure. Well, did we get a surprise! About a quarter mile or so up the trail we could hear water falling. A bit further up and the trail started running parallel to a gorgeous creek. We cut through the bushes to find it, and here was my first view. This is the family walking on solid white granite, along the edge of the creek. The creek is just on the other side of them. You can click on these photos to make them larger.
We could walk up along the side of this creek on the granite for a long ways, so we did. It was so beautiful! These pics do NOT do it any justice at all. It was probably one of the most awesome sites I've seen (and I've seen some major sites in my life!) This is sweet hubby and his brother up ahead of me. Look at that splashing water. It was a very powerful creek. We did not want to fall in it, we'd be in big trouble.
After walking up awhile, I turned around and took a pic of the creek thundering down the mountain side behind me.
Eventually, we got back on the main trail, which continued to follow the creek up until it came to a spot where another creek met with this one. At this point, the trail split. There was a family here who were having lunch and whatnot. They told us if we crossed the creek (not an easy task) and took the trail on the other side, there was yet another really awesome waterfall up a couple hundred feet or so (the new creek did this one). The family decided to do that. However, I could not see a way to get Morgan and Tommy over there safely (the water was swift. I needed both my hands to keep my balance.), so Ruth and I decided to take the safe way and just wait for everyone else to come back.
We were in a really beautiful spot, and the boys would enjoy exploring all the new smells. Ruth left me for a bit and continued up the original trail we were on. She was hoping to find an easier place to cross the creek. Instead, she came back and got me to see this. Just a couple hundred feet up the trail the granite waterfall continued. Notice the dark rock in the center of the photo? That rock is HUGE! This was one awesome site. The creek came down into a pool at the front of this photo before it then tumbled on down the mountain.
In the shade by this pool was this wonderful natural granite bench at the perfect height and size for sitting on. Morgan posed for me on it.
Then I sat down to wait for the family. We figured we had about a half hour to 45 minute wait. This was a very pleasant place to do it. Ruth shucked her socks and shoes and went wading in the pool, and the boys explored. I tried to get a nice pic of Tommy, but all I got was his little butt. He was very excited about the whole hike and couldn't sit still for 1 second. Too many things to explore and smell. That's him behind me. Ruth took this pic of me on the 'bench'.
That's all for now. I'll share more pics tomorrow.
Have a good day.
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