Burley Mountain

The first time we ever traveled up these narrow, winding, switchback dirt roads on Burley Mountain was July, 1996. We were camping at Iron Creek campground and made the drive up to check out the berry crops. They were everywhere! Wild huckleberries and blueberries and it was hot. MN was only 1 and a half and enjoyed grabbing berries and shoving them into her mouth. We went back down with three blue handed kids, stained by all the berries they picked. The drive is long and the road is only wide enough for one vehicle at a time and there's always a steep drop off to one side of you but thankfully my husband has never 'steered us wrong' on the trip up or down.

This year we decided to try camping here in August and get in some nice weather as opposed to the snow we met up here the past two Septembers. The berries are fresh and frozen then but so were our hands. We found only a handful of ripe blueberries, the rest were still green but the wild strawberries were growing all over the sides of the road. Here are my uncle and aunt hiking up the steep road with some of my kids and some of my nieces.

My husband spent the time up there running Tater and Chelan, searching for grouse. They found two. Still too early to hunt them but nice to give the dogs a whiff of what they'll need to be looking for in the fall. The red flowers are Indian Paintbrush.

CT and two of my brother's girls stand at the edge of the road for a photo and Little J kept up quite well with help from 'Nana's hand. Nice to be up there in the sunshine with my coat off this time.