North Cascades cascades

The weather is clearing and warming, and I have been out and about.  Five days ago, I drove to Granite Falls.  While the water had some silt in it, the fury of the falls shredded that water, filling the air with its spray.  From the right angle with the sun at my back. a dramatic rainbow was revealed.

The spray had a secondary effect.  The land near the falls was covered with rich green ferns.

I took a road that was designed as a loop through the mountains.  The central portion was still closed by snow, but on the northern part of the loop, it paralleled a beautiful mountain stream.

There is a highway that crosses the southern part of North Cascades National Park.  I have only driven the western part so far, but I found this waterfall on it.

There is a road that takes one to the northern slopes of Mount Baker.  While one cannot see Mount Baker from this road (more on this in another post), the scenery is beautiful.  A short side trip took me to Nooksack Falls.  I don't know how high it is, but it is BIG.  It is also unusual in that the Falls exist at the junction of two rivers.  The larger, flowing westerly, drops into a ravine.  Perhaps 1/3 or 1/2 way up from the bottom, the second river, flowing northerly, joins in the drop.  My viewpoint was on the north edge of the drop.  I really wish I could have gotten to  the land near the base at the southeast junction, so that I could see the full drop and the junction of the two falls.  I had to content myself with a partial view of the upper portion of the main drop.  To get a true sense of the size of this, click on the image, then zoom in on the right corner (our left) of the lip of the falls to see the person standing there.