Most of my posts are about trips I’ve been on – beautiful landscapes, long drives, that sort of thing.
But sometimes, great views are closer to home. I try to stay active; some days that means going to the gym down the road, some days it means driving to the climbing gym, and other days it means just going for a walk in the nearby park.
These are some pictures from the last option – just random times, with nothing particularly special to make them stand out except that they’re pretty snippets of daily beauty.
Back in University, there was a group of my friends who would take annual trips out to Oregon to ski on Mt. Hood, and to climb at Smith Rock. They called it something along the lines of “Big Sky adventure”… which I never quite understood. They showed some pretty photos, and shared some awesome photos, but I never really understood what they meant by “Big Sky” until I first moved out to Hood River.
Even here in Wilsonville, which is basically a paragon of suburbia, the sky never ceases to amaze me…
The last few weekends, I’ve been up in the mountains. Snow, cold weather, beautifully crisp air… I love it.
Sometimes, we need a change of scenery though – Sticking with the theme of the weekend, I was hiking with a friend today, and she’d gotten into a crash while snowboarding back on Friday… so she wasn’t quite feeling like hanging out in the snow, which is rather understandable after cracking your helmet after flying through a whiteout.
We went in the other direction, trading cold snow and crisp air for warm breezes and salt spray!
Falcon’s Crest is a fairly short hike, with a surprising amount of mud in that short hike… but it’s a beautiful few miles, with light elevation gain and excellent views. The trees are covered in Moss, the forest is lush and green throughout the year… and while you can’t quite smell the sea air, you can still somehow sense that the ocean is nearby. Maybe it’s the subtle noise of the breakers, or the salt tint to the breeze… I couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but it’s still always an amazing feeling.
We hiked in, avoided as much mud as we could, and enjoyed a nice snack out on the point overlooking the waves.
We hiked back, rested for a while on a bench by the beach, and watched the surfers rock the breaking waves. Having Aliona along, I got to learn quite a bit about the surfers… or more accurately, the waves that they were chasing. That’s what I love about meeting new people, and spending time with friends – you can always learn more about something, if you have someone along for the ride to talk to.
Every activity has such surprising depth to it, and I truly love getting to learn the intricacies behind why people are doing what they’re doing.
After beach-gazing for a while, we headed back to the parking lot for a quick snack before driving back to town – Aliona pulled out a full camp cooking kitchen from the back of her car, and I got to enjoy a rather amazing late-lunch of indian-spiced ramen noodles. Not something I’ve ever thought to try, but it was gloriously delicious – smooth, spicy… an excellent end to a beautifully salt-sprayed day!
