It has been a “fun” year so far for the PNW. We had an El Nino winter (a lot of rain, little snow – remember the lousy snow at the Winter Olympics?) then as winter waned so did El Nino and we got late season snow up high. Then add in a cold, dreary spring. You wouldn’t have known it was the first day of summer yesterday with the “balmy” temps of low 60′s here. So…waking up to blue skies this morning was a shocker. It has been awhile since Tahoma was out shining and down low we had low clouds. Ford, Walker and I set off for the mountains this morning.
We took a break along the White River to enjoy Skookum Falls:
Ford hanging out above the river – it was really nice (and warm!):
We headed up to Tipsoo Lakes parking lot where the sheer level of snow left is easy to see (3/4 of the parking lot is still buried):
To take these shots of Tahoma I was standing next to 5 foot high snow:
Walker and I in the snow. Someone small didn’t care much for the snow due to how intensively bright it was. It was blinding, I had a hat on him except for photo time. Not easy for a child with hair that is turning red and who has Daddy’s skin tone.
The lakes were just starting to melt out a bit:
Walker ready to go home and come back when all that pesky snow is gone 
The PCT is quite buried this year. I would say about 2 weeks behind last year at least on snow melt, if not longer. Looking across at the Mountain I can only think that the Wonderland Trail will be bad to hike till melt out occurs. Sunrise is opening later this year (we were up there last year in late June). Still, hopefully we will finally start to see sunny days and maybe, maybe summer is here.
~Sarah
Oh man! Sunrise! When I lived in Tacoma I used to drive up to Sunrise all the time! It’s gorgeous up there.
Is that “watermelon snow” I see in the 5th photo?
Sadly no on that, Jason….it was a marking for when they cut the snow last month.
Why “sadly”? Watermelon snow is poisonous. I was just curious if you have it there. It’s pretty abundant in CO.
You see it often at Rainier up high – like at Sunrise. But not till later in the season. You get other colors as well – green and blue.