Or maybe not in town since I’m not at home. While driving north I noticed several southbound trucks carrying circus or carnival rides. Although they had no animals that I’m aware of, I did see elephants yesterday. They were located in the meadows adjacent to Washington Pass. I had been looking forward to seeing elephant’s head since I’ve only previously seen it at Mount Rainier. I was also saw Lewis’s monkey flower, which I was also eagerly anticipating since I tend to associate it with Mount Rainier. As far as I know, Rainier isn’t on fire, although I can’t say for sure since it wasn’t visible when we drove north. The reason I mention that is because we saw the smoke from a big wildfire near Mount Lassen. The sun was quite red through the smoke, and our car was covered with ash the following morning. Up here the Carlton Complex fire is raging, but luckily there aren’t any fires closer to where we’ll be hiking. Speaking of which, we’ll start today. Yesterday we drove a lot, so our only “hikes” were a short stroll at Washington Pass and the extremely easy trail to Rainy Lake. The Lake is beautiful, but the lighting for photography was awful. Oh well, we take what we can get. Sure it’s disappointing when we can’t get nice pictures, but how can I complain about being in the North Cascades.