Concrete, WA and Mt. Baker

Thursday, January 14, 2010

On Sunday, Kj, Kelli, and I woke up early and drove 3 hours north to the little town of Concrete, WA.

During the month of January, hundreds of bald eagles can be seen here feeding on salmon in the Skagit River. We wanted to get in on that action but arrived a little too late, around 10:30 am or so, by which time the eagles had fed and fled. We only saw 2 lone bald eagles regally perched in trees across the river, which was incredibly cool, nontheless. They have wingspans of up to 6 feet!

We also saw this blue heron stalking fish in the water. Cars were rushing by barely 5 feet away, but she was so focused on carefully and sloooowly creeping up to the water, she didn't even blink. It was kind of freaky to watch, actually:

We drove around, trying to find Baker Lake, and found a different lake backed up behind an old dam circa 1940s. It was really quiet out there...

After a little exploration, we found this old structure, probably once part of a rock quarry operation, now with shotgun shells littering the ground all around it and gang tags all over it:


I love seeing abandoned vestiges of another era:

Tenacious little plants growing on the rust:

Here is the REAL Baker Lake that we later found --


Driving back pretty soon we went from this:

To this:

So good to be alive in the 21st century. Here's to having our cake and eating it too.