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bridal
veil falls |
| Gold Bar, WA |
| The hike up to Bridal Veil Falls, in the
Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is steep and long,
but the generally shady trail is well-maintained and every
once in a while the tree cover opens to reveal a spectacular
view of the valley below or the peak above. |
| We chose this hike one day when we couldn't
find parking at Wallace Falls State Park. This hike is
stairs and stairs and more stairs. The reward for the
effort is an experience with far fewer other people. There
were other hikers, many huffing and puffing as I was but
there weren't nearly as many as there were across the
way at Wallace Falls. This trail is more difficult and
the area at the top of the falls is more exposed |
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| We were climbing a particularly steep part of the trail
about 2/3rds of the way up to the falls and through an
opening in the trees I saw the tip of the peak of the
mountain we were climbing jutting up, cutting the blue,
blue sky. The blue was that impossible blue that is only
seen on a clear day in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest
and the peak looked for all the world like an stone age
tool spearing the sky, rough, made in the moment, sharp
and shaped to accomplish a purpose. The integrity, the
strength of the rocky material, I’ve put to my purpose
much as that ancient hunter put it to his own. I climb
the unyielding blade to the sky and penetrate a place
that my body’s properties could not reach alone.
It’s beautiful, that spear piercing the sky and
inspired I surge upward along it. |
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| by Dianne Bengtson |
| photographed by Steve Robertson |
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