On Thursday we headed out to walk another stretch of the Wonderland Trail, from Narada Falls to Reflection Lake. It was overcast and a little cool when we started, but it still offered some beautiful scenery from the overlook.
and it’s hard to imagine a more inspiring place to start a hike than at Narada Falls.
Most of the hike up to Reflection Lake was in deep forest, so it didn’t really matter if it was overcast or clear. Â
Very few flowers grow in the Northwest’s old-growth forests, but mushrooms seem to thrive on the litter and decaying trees that are part of a mature forest. If I had stopped to take photos of every mushroom I saw I would have never kept up with Leslie and Paul so I focused on the biggest
and most
 interesting mushrooms. Â
At first glance, these looked like bright red flowers, but they turned out to be some kind of small red berry.
It was a bit of an uphill slog, but the climb seemed more than worth it when we reached Reflection Lake,Â
our turn-around point.
These are a little different scale for you. I’m used to seeing things roughly the size of a bird, but this time they ranged from as big as a mountain to as small as a mushroom. I enjoyed these! Thank you for sharing them!
You have to get a little more innovative when neither birds nor flowers show themselves.
In the end, of course, it’s the exercise and overall beauty that make the physical effort worthwhile.
So beautiful. A perfect walk. A perfect moment. Thank you!