Drawing rural things in the Skagit Valley, Washington
Drawing rural things in the Skagit Valley, Washington
One of our favorite half-day getaways, the Skagit Valley is little more than an hour’s drive from North Seattle. The walk at Wylie Slough is wide and flat, following the estuary quite a ways toward Puget Sound. A birdwatcher’s dream, it generally rewards us with sightings of eagles and herons. When the tide is low you see the exposed mudflats.
Unlike a forest hike, this area is open to the sky and sun, with wide views of hundreds of apparently drowned trees among the high grasses. It feels like a drowned world, like in a short story by Paul Bowles or J.G. Ballard. We see the Cascade Mountains beyond on one side and the Olympic Mountains on the other. And there are frequent views of Mt. Baker’s white flanks looking north.
