Shabbat shalom everyone wherever you are around the world!
Yesterday (Friday) I went for a ten mile day hike up onto the NW side of Oregon’s Mount Hood with some of my kids. Please enjoy some of the snapshots I took from that alpine adventure.
I invite you in joining me in praise and worship of Yehovah Elohim for giving us eyes to feast on such visual delicacies to be discovered in his glorious creation!
Mount Hood, Oregon’s tallest peak, from Lolo Pass Rd.
The Vista Ridge Trail. A few years ago, a forest fire devastated this side of the mountain. Now look at the beauty that has sprung out of the fire’s destruction as the earth is healing itself. This is our wonderful Elohim at work in his creation who gives us beauty out of the ashes (Isa 61:3)!
A blooming carpet of avalanche lilies in the midst of the burnt out trees standing like silent sentinels keeping watch over the forest. Yeshua said, “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:27).
There is even a stark beauty to be found in the pattern of the skeletal remains of the forest fire and the trees that the wind storms have subsequently laid down. There is a beautiful blessing to be found in every adversity of life. All we need is the right mindset of a thankful heart to search for and to find that blessing in the midsts of life’s difficulties and then, once found, to rejoice in it.
Even the holes in these ghoulish burned out tree snags are a blessing not only for their beauty, but for the wildlife habitat they create. We saw mountain blue birds nesting in some of these tree cavities.
We finally got above the forest fire area and were blessed with this specular view of Mount Hood!
Enjoying a high alpine lunch with my kids. In the front is Lucy, our oldest child and her husband Spencer. In the back are Kaleb and Jared. Hiking ten miles and gaining about 1,600 foot in elevation leaves one with a healthy appetite.
Kaleb beware! One should never drink untreated water in the mountains unless you know where it comes from…
In this case, Kaleb made a wise choice. This water is as pure as you can get on planet earth!
Tiny Dollar Lake was our final destination at just under 6,000 foot elevation. It is the highest alpine lake on Mount Hood. Kaleb stripped down to his shorts and ran down the snow bank and dove in for a quick plunge into the icy waters. It was a very quick dip! He jumped out almost as fast as he got in. It happened so fast that none of us had a chance to snap a photo of him. I’m proud of Kaleb for his adventuresome spirit.
Dollar Lake against the backdrop of majestic Mount Hood. Would have been a great spot to spend Shabbat had we been camping there.
