40 years ago

I shot this picture 40 years ago.  It’s in the Stuart range of the North Cascades.  A place called “the Enchantments,” for obvious reasons.  The trees are Western Larch and, yes, that’s really the color of the needles.

In those days, when the government didn’t require permits and there were few people who knew of the place and fewer who climbed into it, it was pristine beauty.  Ice cold water.  Way above the air pollution haze.  The mountain in the background is Prusik Peak, actually about 2 miles away.

My brother and I would jump in the car after school, drive to the base and climb like mad to get there before dark.  I miss those days.  A different life then.

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Ester

Enchanting indeed, looks unreal!
Climb like mad to get where? To the Range where this lake is? Looks pretty flat though, except for the rocks. LOL What a serene place to grow up.
Wonder what it would look today, not that man could do much to destroy that serenity.
Thank you for sharing.

Kees Brakshoofden

Flat? You don’t know what flat is! Come to my country!!! 😉

Kees Brakshoofden

B.t.w., Ester, where do YOU live?

Ester

Shalom Kees! I am from Downunder, and about a day ahead of you?
I have been to Holland, and Amsterdam, and there are beautiful places too.
It is a country blessed by YHWH.
I do love mountains, waterfalls, and rivers and lakes. 🙂 That would be anything that
ABBA has created for our pleasure.
Pleasure to know you from here. We are Family, and we are Israel!! Blessings to you!

Ester

Hm, that thought was/is in my mind too, Skip, as I was thinking yesterday, if dogs would be around in the new earth, as they are truly man’s best friends.
And what about the lions and the bears etc, would they be around as well, and as death would be defeated, the earth would be over filled. Or maybe that would be another earth after that where death is truly defeated, not yet in the new earth to come?

Ester

And where would you be from, Thomas? Shalom!

Thomas Elsinger

Thank you for asking, Ester! And shalom..I am from northeast Iowa, not far from the Mississippi, in country known as the “little Alps.” My wife is from Nebraska. A lot of people don’t see the beauty in that state, but she does.

Ester

Thank you, Thomas. It’s beautiful, I checked, LOL.
I’ve been to Georgia, not Mississippi, nor West Virginia. Shalom!

Kees Brakshoofden

Wow! What a creative Creator we have!

I’m always a bit jealous looking at pictures of mountains. We haven’t got a single mountain in Holland. I have lived below sealevel all of my life, and the highest ‘mountain’ is a hill of 300 meters in the utmost south.
Nevertheless God has blessed us with other kinds of beauty in this country. He’s never lacking in goodness for anyone. Praise Adonai!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0qoZIyo_p8

Thomas Elsinger

I wish there was an English word for the meaning “places tucked away and little known.” There are many of them here in northeast Iowa, a part of Iowa not like the rest of the state. This is where our children learned that to enjoy wild places is to enjoy “God who made the world and everything in it.” (Acts 17:24) Thank you, Skip, for sharing your place of enjoyment.

Judi Baldwin

It looks like a magical place for brothers to bond.
I’m glad you have those wonderful memories to replay.

Thomas Elsinger

By the way, as good as these comments are every day, they’re even better when I learn a little bit about the people behind them, these fellow participants in this community. Now I know Skip has a brother. He likes to hike. And Kees lives in Holland. Wonderful!

December

Very beautiful.

Brian

Kees,

I believe one of the most gorgeous areas in the world can be found in southwest Virginia, the home of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I lived there for over thirty years. Recently, my family moved down to within a few miles from New Orleans, Louisiana. I have come to deeper appreciate the beauty and variety of our Creator’s world.

Michael

John Denver – Country Roads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN86d0CdgHQ

Almost heaven West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains Shenandoah river
Life is old there older than the trees
Younger than the mountains blowin’ like a breeze

Country roads take me home
To the place I belove
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads

All my memories gather round her
Miner’s lady stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine teardrops in my eyes

Country roads take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads

I hear a voice in the morning hour as she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin’ down the road I get a feelin’
That I should have home yesterday yesterday

Country roads take me home

To the place I belong
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads

Country roads take me home
To the place I belove
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads

West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads

Ester

True, Brian, there’s beauty in highs and lows in the Creator’s world.
I would like to say, nothing compares with Israel, having all four climates-tropical down south, temperate/ Mediterranean in the middle and cold up north where snow often fall.
And Yerushalam has its ups and downs, never flat, like our spiritual walk, a local told us.
Shalom!

Beautiful song, Michael, I love that song. Shalom!

Ida Blom

I had to Google it to see where this is – Washington state! Beautiful!

Dawn McL

I love these pictures of sharing! It is so good to see Y-H’s creation in places I will never set foot in.
Thank you for sharing Skip. Sounds like good memories here at least from 40 years ago!

Michael C

Skip,
This is off topic, however, I am wondering if you have any new books to add to your recommended reading list.

Brett Butcher

I went to school in Ellensburg. This is a very familiar skyline and brings back fond memories for me, too. I’ve hiked in the same area and wonder if I’ve stopped at the same lake. When you took this picture, I wasn’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye yet, though. lol

Pam

Breath taking Skip,
It’s so important for kids to have those magic hideaways. My gandrparents had a place on 80 acres near Mt. Lassen CA on the Ponderosa Wy with pristine streams, mountains, and a meadow. But even in ugly East Oakland where we lived full time there were special spots to escape to. Children can find beauty in the strangest places. I bet you’ve seen that in Africa.

Pam

:/

Pam

Church?

Pam

🙂