Goat Rocks Rocks!

Yes, we're baa-yack. Had a wonderful time and all that rot. The weather was mostly cooperative. But remember that picture of Goat Rocks in my final post before leaving? (Scroll down to the next post to see it). Well, we camped right there, at the base of the giant split rocks in Snowgrass Meadows, but this is what it looked like this year:

Apparently, Washington did not share our dry spring- there was a LOT of snow- considering it was the last week of July and we were only at 6400'. And, as you can see, it was a cloudy, drippy day when we backpacked in last Sunday.

I wanted Bex and Mrs Runalong to see this spot that had appeared to me as one of the most beautiful places in the world when I backpacked in 6 years ago- full of wildflowers and sunshine and awesome views. Now I feared we'd miss out on all but a few wildflowers and minimal views. The forecast was full of uncertainty. But God is good to pastors who drag their wives up into the mountains for their first ever backpacking trip, and Monday dawned bright and beautiful (Mt Adams in the background):

And while the wildflowers weren't as good as usual, they were still impressive (Mt St Helens in the background, this picture is taken from the same spot as the last):

We hiked to the top of Old Snowy Monday, which was a good thing, as it turned out.