Natural Wonders of the Teanaway Valley

I have some nature shots I wanted to share with you from my trip to visit my Mom in Cle Elum. This first one makes me think of a huge frozen mountain range...

I should have gotten even closer, but it was freezing out there! I was on the porch and didn't bother to put my shoes on. So I said, good enough and ran back inside. It was so sparkly in real life.

I saw something on a horse's leg while driving around for my house tour and made my mom back up...

I was about to go tell the owners that their horse had gotten tangled in something, when it moved and I saw this...

The Magpie was pecking at those legs like crazy and hanging off the horse and flapping around! I can't believe the horses just let those guys crawl all over them. It reminded me of Pioneer Woman's recent parasite post; those mites must be pretty pesky, so the horses appreciate the birds' work. My horse lets the swallows sit on her back and they always poop on her. What a creative maker our Lord is!

Speaking of our Maker, He also did a good job on this view, a few miles from my parents' house...

It is the Stuart Mountains, and they are breathtaking. The clouds are over the highest peak, Mount Stuart, which my husband has attempted but not summited yet. Here is a shot of it another day...

I have been looking for a print of Aspen trunks online for Mark's big boy room, with no luck. So I decided to take it into my own hands at my Mom's. I made her stop and let me run across a road-side field to get a shot of this Aspen grove. It's OK, but not what I had envisioned...

I thought a bear might be hiding in the brush but risked it for the shot. Then I heard a noise and thought he was coming to get me... no, it was my daughter screaming in the car about 200 feet away and I could hear her with the doors closed. She screams bloody murder when she drops her plug. She's 2 months.

This is a random rock outcropping on the side of the road, where I am sure a cougar lives...

Though I have never explored it myself, due to the danger of becoming lunch, I am sure there is a cave under those rocks where his lair is. It's a real wonder that he lives there right by the road and no one ever sees him. He must be sneaky. =)

This is Bible Rock...

Looks like an open book or bible and always makes me think of Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse..."

When I lived in Cle Elum, I worked in Ellensburg, at the Copy Shop across the street from CWU. Someone came in to make a copy of an old photo, and it was so neat, I made one for myself too. This was the photo...

There are the two guys near the bottom, and also two or three men on the very top! It must have been taken in the early 1900's, and the bottom says "Balanced Rock near Cle Elum, Wash. (Connell Photo)." I came across the picture and left it for my dad last time I was at their house, and gave him the homework of finding it for me, since he knows most of the area like the back of his hand. He has a jeep that goes most anywhere, snowmobiles, hunts, gathers firewood and explores on a regular basis. He thought he knew where it was, so I fed the baby, left her with Mom, and we took off on our expedition in the Jeep. This is what the ride was like...

Bumpy! Mark would have loved it. That is basically a trail, covered with hard frozen snow drifts. And where the drifts are thin, the mud underneath is thick. It was very rough and we couldn't slow down to take a non-blurry pic because we were rushing to see the rock in the day light and get back before baby got hungry again! The jarring bumps don't seem to phase my dad. So the rock my dad thought was the one in the picture proved to be an impostor. He knows he has seen the one in the pic and thought it was a few miles further up the trail, but we didn't have enough daylight or time to keep hunting that day. The trip wasn't a waste though, we caught many views of the pretty sunset...

I should have gotten a prettier shot, but my dad was flying! So I think that's all you have to hear about Cle Elum and the Teanaway Valley! Until next time I visit and have some new adventures!