Blue Lupine in the Cascades

Blue Lupine, Washington State Wildflower

Blue Lupine in the Cascades © 2010 Bo Mackison

Mother Nature makes it really hard to drive on the back roads of Washington state. Every few yards along the sides of the roads are massive spreads of blue and purple lupine. When she wants to make it especially difficult to concentrate, she adds a few white or pink lupine into the mix. Occasionally there are yellow ones, too.

I finally pulled off the road to get my photography fix for the morning. We were driving from Seattle to Vancouver — shouldn’t have been all that difficult, seeing as it is only a two hour drive. But we were already a day behind our plans, since we had taken the turn off I-5 the morning before for a spontaneous detour through the North Cascades. But even being off schedule wasn’t a good enough reason to not stop. So stop we did.

The lupine were definitely worth the delay.

Golden Rock

Rocks and Driftwood on Ruby Beach

Golden Rock @ 2010 Bo Mackison

Close up view of Ruby Beach as high tide is approaching. I had to hurry to capture this little golden rock on the weathered log, reminded me of a little golden egg resting in a nest,  before the waves started to pool around my ankles.

Even so, by the time we had walked north along the beach a hundred yards and back, we were cut off from the path to the car. Nothing dangerous, and there were lots of people still walking the area, but we all had to either walk across a fallen tree that functioned as a (very narrow, slippery) foot bridge or wade through the Hoh River  at the spot where it enters the Pacific. We chose the route of wet socks, wet hiking boots, and a story to add to our ever increasing pile of memories.

Ruby Beach is on the Pacific Coast in Olympic National Park.