If you were to ask me for advice for a place you could hike in the North Cascades where you could spend your day in a setting of great natural beauty, I typically would not direct you toward an area that had been burned in a forest fire.
No, I’d direct you toward Cascade Pass, where you’d walk a trail with dramatic, towering peaks as a backdrop. Or, if you were a strong hiker, I’d suggest a trail that would take you to a spot where you’d be able to view peaks known as “The Pickets,” rock and ice spires that would take your breath away.
Still, if you did as many hiking trips as my friends and I, I suspect you’d develop an appreciation for many and varied kinds of "natural beauty.” The sagebrush & desert landscape of Central Washington might become something you’d enjoy. And, who knows? You might even learn to love a walk amid recently burned trees.
Two days ago my buds and I drove over the North Cascades highway to one of our favorite areas of the state, the Methow River Valley. We hiked a trail that initially gave us “classic” North Cascades views of dramatic, snow-covered peaks. Five miles and several thousand feet of elevation gain later, however, we entered an entirely different landscape -- gentle buttes and burned trees, and I was reminded of classical, spare Japanese paintings.
The more we hike this amazing state, the more we expand our personal concepts of “beauty.”
