Hiking in Washington
Although our hike in Washington was a bust, we have another Washington hike from another day that was fantastic.
After hiking 44 states without even a 10-minute delay, our travel god karma finally caught up to us in Washington on our 50 Hikes 50 States Hiking Project. When we left Denver’s -5 degrees, we never dreamed our situation would get worse.
But then we got stuck on the onramp at midnight between the Portland airport and our hotel. We pushed. They pushed. We all pushed. And finally, at 1:30 am, we rolled into our hotel, a mere 5 miles from the airport. It would be the last time we drove for three days. Our plans to hike both Washington and Oregon fizzled to an urban hike from the hotel to the grocery store and back.
We had planned to hike the Frenchman’s Bar Hike, but that never materialized.
An Urban Hike to the Safeway
The highlight of the weekend was finding a vegan Sheppard’s pie in the frozen section at the nearby Safeway which we nuked in the hotel microwave.
None the less, since we had our wet hiking gear with us, we donned it on Saturday and ventured out into Vancouver, WA. First we pushed a Corolla out of a residential driveway, and then we found waterfalls! Two of them! Granted, they weren’t the beauty of the Columbia Gorge, but it was silly to see the frozen ice of landscaping features entertain us.
Walking through an apartment complex, we found their “nature hike” where we broke trail for 1/3 mile through trees. We scaled the 3 foot snow banks and tread marks on the major roads, and by the time we arrived at Safeway, 1.5 miles away, we had pushed out several cars.
Never had I realized how much I had underappreciated snow shovels and snow plows.
By Sunday, an airport window had opened, and we found our escape to this 100-year snow event in Portland. Back in Denver, the tragedy of the winter storms blew through us. News of disasters we left in Oregon and Washington began to flood the airwaves, and Texas was about to get the frozen brunt of being off the national power grid.
Denver, although frigid, welcomed us home with heat, water, and clear roads.
Never fear, we have a Washington hike for you.
Fortunately, I have hiked Washington previously. Thus, I’ll call on that experience to provide your Washington hike. Please enjoy this post about hiking in Washington, which includes more than 5 hikes in Washington.
5 Hikes You Must Do Near Seattle
