Monday, March 24, 2014

Beacon Rock

I have wanted to hike to the top of Beacon Rock ever since we stopped to have lunch there on Walt and Dena’s boat about 8 years ago. Today we finally did it!

Not only was it the first official day of Spring Break but it was 71 degrees! Much too beautiful a day to waste it indoors. So we drove south and hiked up the rock. It is a good thing it was a warm sunny day because it was WINDY! REALLY WINDY!

Thankfully, the wind died down quite a bit as we were protected from the wind by the rock for most of the first part (and last part) of the hike.

beacon rock 01

beacon rock 02

All the little old details on the trail were pretty cool, too.

  beacon rock 06 beacon rock 03 beacon rock 04 beacon rock 05 We paused quite a bit to take pictures. It was hard not to…

beacon rock 07beacon rock 08beacon rock 09Looking west down the gorge

Then we started to really switchback up the rock…

beacon rock 10   

beacon rock 11

Looking east up the gorge

When we rounded this corner, the wind picked up again…

beacon rock 12  beacon rock 13more switchbacks

beacon rock 14 

beacon rock 15

even more switchbacks

Almost to the top…

beacon rock 17

beacon rock 18

beacon rock 19

Then we climbed one staircase to the very top of the rock…

beacon rock 20beacon rock 21beacon rock 22beacon rock 23It’s much faster going down. Especially when you are hungry for lunch…

beacon rock 24beacon rock 26beacon rock 27It really isn’t nearly as bad as it looks… :o)

Now that we have our Discovery Pass for 2014, I wonder where we’ll go next???      

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