Horses & Waterfalls 7.10.2010

On Wednesday (my day off) I took the opportunity to become a spectator at the track.  I went during morning workouts/warmups in an attempt to get some good horse shots.  Unfortunately the sun was up too high by the time I made it there... I probably should have started sometime around 6am instead of 9...

{Right click on photos to enlarge}

As you can tell, the weather has finally, finally cleared up.  We've had temps in the 90's for the past few days and it's going to stay sunny and cool in the mid 70's for the rest of the week, if you can believe it!

Since I wasn't having much luck with the track horses, I headed down Green River to see if I could catch any action there.

And my most favorite so far...

We're definitely taking advantage of the weather... this morning, I dragged Rico out of bed to take me hiking at some waterfalls (I know - I'm such a mean wife not to let him sleep in!).  I recently found this cool website that lists all the waterfalls in the Northwest and ranks them, based on flow, accessibility, beauty, etc.  Rico used to explore these falls with his parents when he was younger.

Top of Tomtom Falls (we couldn't figure out how to get to the base of Tomtom so this is the top only): We had to cross an old train tressel to reach it...

Then Rico started having waaay too much fun with the new wireless remote!

We trekked back up and circled around away from the falls to find Little Mashell Falls (which really aren't little at all!):

We started at the top ... Which by the way is really cool to stand at the top and look all the way down!  We discovered a tiny little lagoon where we took our shoes off and relaxed.

And worked our way down to the base:

Excuse my chicken wings, but I can now cross another item off my list: Walking behind a waterfall :)

Where in the world is Rico? Oh you mean the tiny little white dot beneath the falls? Yeah that's him!

After this hike, we definitely didn't need to go to the gym!
On the way back, we stopped at a scenic pull out to get a good view of Mt. Rainier, from an angle I've never seen.  You can see where the top collapsed during the last eruption and the flat glacier that grew on top.