With the forecast predicting thunderstorms, hiking to Yellow Aster Butte didn’t seem like a good idea. Instead we started the day hiking at Horseshoe Bend. There are some good views of the silt laden Nooksack River. Later the trail starts climbing and descending steeply on mostly slippery tread. It’s not really much gain and loss. The hiking books indicate only 250 feet. The problem is that it was hot and the humidity felt like 99.9%. Oh, and I had a rain jacket on. I quickly took that off. I was still soaked with sweat by the time I finished.

We decided to head back to town to check out Whatcom Falls since the sky was overcast. By the time we got there the sun was halfway peeking through. I wasn’t overly impressed by any of the falls, so I only took one photograph. It’s not that the falls sucked. The problem must be that I’m spoiled. Maybe part of the problem is that the sun was on the falls.

We then checked out Chuckanut Drive and Larrabee State Park. It was nice enough, but again I hardly took a picture.

As for the picture I uploaded today, this is much more my kind of scene than what we’ve been seeing recently. I don’t mean to say that the recent hikes haven’t been wonderfully scenic. What I do mean is that I’m much better at taking river and forest photographs than I am at capturing alpine scenery.