Washington state has so many awesome places to go, and things to see. I’m sure every state does, but I really feel like Washington has it all: volcanos, the ocean, forests, deserts, waterfalls, even beaches!! You name it, we probably have it. I’m sure it’s no surprise to most of you if you have been around here long enough that once the weather starts to warm up, I have a hard time staying inside. Raylee starts to get crabby, and so do I, so we try to find new adventures every week. This week, the weather has been kind of strange, just like it always is in spring time around here. There’s days that it’s beautiful, and then before you know it, a monster thunderstorm is looming overhead and your pictures are shaking on your walls from the thunder. That’s kind of scary if you’re out in the woods, or in an open field, so we kept our adventure close to home this week. The Ginkgo Petrified Forest is just a few miles from where we live, and it’s a pretty short hike. Raylee is getting to the point that she (kind of) recognizes danger and that if she fell off a cliff, it would hurt, so I’m slowly introducing her into hiking NOT in her carrier. It’s been a learning curve for both of us. I’m learning patience because I always like to go, and she’d rather pick up all the rocks to throw them, and then she runs away, and turns around and says “BYE!” She may be starting to understand that a fall off a cliff would be fatal, but running away into the arms of a stranger doesn’t seem to faze her. Heaven help us.

The hike around the petrified forest isn’t anything too crazy. Quite a bit of it is paved, and then every so often you see a caged box of the petrified wood. I didn’t take any photos of them because they’re hard to see, and (in my opinion) aren’t anything too phenomenal. We just wanted to get outside, stretch our legs, Raylee wanted to find some snakes (ick. We didn’t.), and it never hurts hike around when you have something to see.

I can’t wait until the weather gets warmer to try and see more waterfalls and mountain lakes this summer, and share them here. In the mean time, if you know of any awesome hikes in Washington, I want to know about them!!!! 🙂

When I was editing this shot, it reminded me of something you would see in Hawaii with all the green, and my crazy hippy child. I think we need to go back ASAP.

Running away = story of my life.

Raylee in her natural habitat. If she finds a puddle, you can find her in it.

And we got home to the coolest double rainbow I’ve ever seen. The calm AFTER the storm. 🙂