Mount Baker (Washington, USA) | The Taelemans´ Blog

Nov 11

Ine |

Early this morning we were heading for the US border. We decided to go to Mount Baker. We were told it was pretty nice up there and the weather forecast was good so the decision was made pretty fast.

The road trip went very smooth until we came to the us border.

Because we entered the US from Canada (not being Canadian Citizens), we had to fill in a few papers. They needed to get our fingerprints and portrait picture. We received our visa for 3 months and we can go to the US as much as we want in the next three months. So no more going inside to customs when we go to Seattle for example. That is pretty convenient.

From the US border to Mount Baker, it was another 53km. It was a scenic byway and since the weather was nice, really cool to drive on. We saw a bible camp, They had a nice location, but I would prefer to be on the mountain snowboarding instead of being at a bible camp…

After a while we entered Mount Baker National Forest. All American National Park/forest entrances have a sign which is showing the forest fire danger of that day. The mascot they use on the sign, is Smokey Bear.

There is of course a story attached to the name. In 1950 fire fighters in New Mexico found an abandoned bear cub. A picture of the bear licking the face of a little girl was showed in newspapers all across the US. The cub was quickly named Smokey, after Smokey Joe Martin, a legendary New York fire chief. Smokey, the real bear grew old and died in a zoo in Washington, D.C.

Soon we arrived at the ski area.

We noticed that the temperature was dropping and that the roads were pretty wet.

Soon the road was not only wet, but there was also snow on the sides. Come to think of it we had also passed a few chain up areas. The weather was changing and it would probably start snowing. We didn’t want to take too many risks without winter tires or snow chains, so we decided to make a short loop at the first station of Mount Baker Ski Area and head down again. (We just wanted to make sure that Kris would be able to get at work in time tomorrow, and since there were not a lot of people in case we wouldn’t be able to drive down:)).

But Kris was able to make a few pictures before heading down.
Mount baker reflected in water: