A hike and a fae prison

We went hiking today Sunday in southwest Washington. We'd gone down to Portland since my bro and family were arriving and we wanted to be there to greet them, they headed back to Bend with my BIL for a few days then will come here. Anyhow, we'd decided to spend the night in Portland, have breakfast with everyone, and go on a hike on the way home.

We headed out to Yacolt and Moulton Falls. First up, Yacolt. On the trail, we found what is clearly a tree imprisoning a fae.

I mean, look at this. The tree, a lodgepole pine, was probably 100ft tall. The iron ring was unbroken, and unbreakable. What else could it be?





We gave our names to noone.

The first falls were just a short trip from the road and in the summer, this appears to be a swing bridge that closes to open the trail to crossing above the river. Closed now, or open as the case may be! Back to the East Fork of the Lewis River, cross on the pretty picturesque bridge that you can't see from the top 😁 and then down the "trail", more like a road, along the river for a few miles. It was nice.

When we got back to the bridge, we crossed and headed closer to the river to get the views. Isn't it a pretty bridge?





There!

All the photos are in the Flickr set.

Needless to say.... there is a nearby tourist railway that runs steam at time, there is a photo of me at their very closed at this time of year Yacold Depot on Flickr. But of course we tried to follow the line to get more info until dh figured out which railway and who runs it and who he knows who works or volunteers there, LOL. Everything was closed, but I'm sure we'll be back to the area for train stuff!

Then on home! It was a nice get out to walk thing. Winter hikes are short bits of hike -the side trip to Yacolt Falls- and mostly walks on better quality paths around here... most real hikes are either eat your shoes muddy or -yech!- snowy! We're planning on getting out on snowshoes when we can!