On The Border

Winthrop, Washington may not actually be on the border with Canada (that is 35 miles further north), but there are no other roads or towns north of it until you are in Canada, just a wilderness of rugged mountains. 

To the east is high, dry prairie.  To the west are the massive forests of the Cascades, and Winthrop IS on the border between those two zones. 

It is home to wonderful cross country skiing, biking, hiking, and horse trails.

I know this because it is also home to two of my friends - John and Marcia.  They are avid hikers and bikers, and were kind enough to share a few of their photos of the surrounding wilderness with me.  It made me acutely aware of just how much I am missing by not being able to get very far away from the road.

Still, from the road it can be pretty impressive.  On a back road, John took me to a bowl with a beautiful meadow.

We wandered about to the top of Starvation Mountain, where, instead of taking photos of the view, I took a shot of a wildflower.

(In my defense, it was midday and a photo of the mountains in the distance would not have registered well...)

John also got me out of the car for a short walk to Falls Creek Falls, a small waterfall tucked in the woods.

We shared it only with the mosquitoes.

About a hundred miles to the south, and a bit closer to the Cascades, I found a nice view of Lake Wenatchee.  In all that wilderness out there, there are only two paved roads.