Washington Crossing Tourism & Travel Guide

Located in the heart of Seattle, Chihuly Garden and Glass provides a look at the inspiration and influences that inform the career of artist Dale Chihuly. Through the exhibition’s eight interior galleries, lush outdoor garden and centerpiece Glasshouse visitors will experience a comprehensive look at Chihuly's most significant series of work. With both day and night experiences, and full-service dining in the adjoining Collections Café, this long-term exhibition offers a unique experience rain or shine.

Morning I wanted to go to Reflection Lake again. As I was heading to the reflection lake I stopped at the Inspiration point, the sun was just coming up and lightning up the mountain across the road. I stopped there and clicked some landscapes also did a timelapse. After one hour, I headed towards reflection lake, to my surprise reflection lake was filling with ice and there was barely any reflection.After breakfast, I started driving towards Redmond to my cousins place, I had few stops at the huge bridge over Nisqually River and Nahunta Falls.I had reached Redmond by around 2 PM. Had lunch, took some rest and drove to Snoqualmie Falls along with my Cousin’s family. Clicked some long exposure shots there and returned to Redmond. At around 10 AM I left Redmond and drove to Sequim.

Previous day when I met a ranger I told him that I wanted to do a star-trail images and time-lapse with Mount Rainier as the subject. He suggested that I should go to Reflection lake at around 2 AM. I woke up at 2 AM and the sky was filled with clouds. I dropped the idea and went back to sleep. At around 5 AM I woke up, it was already bright outside. I started driving to Reflection lake, as I took the turn and drove 100 mtrs I found marmot babies on the road and adults on the rocks playing. I had a great time clicking their images for 15-20 mins and then headed to Reflection lake.I saw a vehicle parked near a pull over area and followed a person taking pictures there, assuming he must be an expert in that area. I did not get a proper opening to click Mount Rainier reflection. I kept wondering is this best place, I walked down the footpath and found there was proper parking area and there was wide opening to click some lovely images.I mounted my 16-35 on Canon 7D and left it for a timelapse. My remote for 1DX stopped cooperating hence had to depend on the 7D inbuilt timelapse function. Lake was filled with snow and there were few small patches of clear water and I got my shots of reflection.Returned to Paradise Inn for breakfast, After breakfast got a bit of guidance from the ranger, first I took off to Narada falls. Ranger is a very nice and friendly person, he seems to have travelled a lot in India, he says Narada falls must have been named by an Indian, referring to Narad muni.It was steep climb down to the viewing spot, I chose to go further down the slushy trail and luckily I landed at a spot where I could get my dream shots of water falls.After Narada Falls I drove in the direction of Steven’s Canyon. First I stopped at upper sunbeam falls, it was cool to click the waterfalls all around, Stopped by the road to click Louise lake with backdrop of Mount Rainier. After a 10 mins drive saw a board for Snow lake and stopped there to hike.Snow lake Trail started off very smoothly with cemented steps after climbing like 100 steps then the trail was completely in snow, I kept pushing myself and reached a plateau, I thought of giving up mid-way, it wasn’t easy carrying a heavy tripod and multiple bodies and lenses. I am glad I pursued when I got to the plateau what I saw was mind-blowing, there were around 8 Waterfalls one next to the other across the mountain, I clicked images to my heart’s content and hiked till bench lake. I met few hikers on the way and they had informed me it was impossible to get to snow lake as the trail was not clear and there was lot of snow. I had to return to the car and it was almost noon.I had a choice to head back for lunch or move ahead on Steven’s Canyon road. I thought it would not make sense to drive all the way back and forth so I moved forward.I was super tired. I had stopped at the bridge over Steven’s creek to click waterfalls and the stream after which I had driven towards Box Canyon.On the way to Box canyon I stopped over at the parking of Maple Creek and Maple Falls. As I saw falls I got excited and started on the Wonderland trail. It was very very steep and I got to a point I had to decide whether to hike towards Box Canyon on towards Maple falls. I chose to hike towards Maple falls, I was all alone did not see a soul around kept following the trail and I reached Maple Creek. Clicked some images at Maple Creek and headed towards Maple falls. I walked almost 3.5 miles and there was no sight of any falls. I was very tired and dehydrated. I walked back to parking.After the 7 miles hiking with steep ascent and dissent I did not have any energy left for further hikes, I retuned back to Paradise Inn by evening , had dinner and slept like a log.

I had reached Paradise inn by around 4PM, which is a large hotel with small rooms at an altitude of around 10K Ft ASL. It was super-hot on the day I had arrived it felt like temperature must be around 30 Deg C. At around 5 PM I had visited the Visitor information centre to understand how to plan my next 2 days.That evening I did not have energy to do any hiking. I was informed that there could be some marmot babies near Myrtle Falls. So I gathered some energy to see the babies, while many discouraged me that it was risky hike in the snow and in the end I might not find anything.I took my chances, it was not very far but was risky due to snow and steep slope on one side of the trail. After I got to the falls, (It was barely a waterfall) I found a patch of dried grass in the snow. After clicking few landscapes near the fall, I saw something moving on the grass patch. There were two marmot babies and they were right in front of the Mount Rainier. With my wide angle got a bit closer to them and captured images of them with Mount Rainier in the backdrop.That day ended with Eagles, long drive and hiking.

No major city in America is as immersed in natural beauty as Seattle. Seattle, Washington is blessed with breathtaking views of the Cascade Mountain Range on one side and the Puget Sound on the other. Continental United States’ fourth tallest mountain and an active volcano, Mount Rainier, is just a couple of hours from Seattle. There aren’t many cities that boast of a view of an active volcano from downtown!There are several beautiful hikes, lakes and waterfalls close to Seattle. One of the most popular things to do in Seattle is to take day trips to the Goat Lake or Hidden Lake that are attractive getaways from Seattle’s urban setting. Not too many snow-covered peaks around San Francisco, California eh?

If you enjoy the beauty of nature, Mount Rainier national park is the place to go.