Fall in Leavenworth

Icicle Creek- 4 miles out and back, limited elevation gain

Pass-Northwest Forest Pass     Difficulty-1/5     Rating-3.5/5

September and now October flew by. I seriously don’t know where all the time went. Trying to get our house in order, vacationing, work, school, and trying to have some fun over the weekends has kept us very buys!

The last weekend in September/the first weekend in October we wanted to see some of the fall colors. I heard that along highway 2 and around Leavenworth was a great area to see the changing leaves. I wasn’t entirely sure what we would do or where we would go, but I was dying to be out in the amazing Washington Fall!

We decided that we would stop in Leavenworth first and eat lunch there. After lunch we decided on going on a small hike. I was mostly excited for the drive over to Leavenworth (its just over two hours away). Drives are one of my favorite things so I was very excited to go!

The drive is super pretty. We drive through a mountain pass where a ski resort is. There are views of mountains and rivers. The trees were stunning as we were the bushes on the mountains! Its one of my favorite drives.

We walked around Leavenworth for just a bit. It was super crowded because it was also Oktoberfest . There were a ton of people, and lots of them were dressed in olden time German outfits, it was quite the site, but a bit too crowded for us. We ate quickly and then headed for our hike.

We decided on doing a small portion of Icicle Creek trail. It was so pretty. There were great fall colors out and we had great views of the river. The kids had a blast hiking and they both did extremely well. We didn’t go far as it was getting late and we still had a decent drive home. The kids could have easily gone more, but they were OK to turn back as well. Ryan found a huge rock to climb on and he was pretty proud of himself for climbing up so high by himself!

The trip to Leavenworth was a great intro into the fall in the Northwest. Fall has always been my favorite, but in Arizona we skim right over it. It was fun to wake up the first day of fall to a cool brisk morning, then having it warm up in the afternoon. Our neighborhood is changing color as well and everything is so beautiful. The air smells amazing too! Arizona certainly could smell good as well, but it was mostly the plants that would make it smell nice (creosote bushes after rain, orange blossoms, etc.) but here its like the air actually smells nice. I’m not sure if its because of all the rain, but its so refreshing!

We’ve had several really nice days as well. It will rain in the night or in the morning, but then the sun comes out in the afternoon. Its been breezy here too, so the breeze shakes the leaves and sun light catches the rain drops that were on the leaves and the air is full of glistening raindrops and red and yellow leaves. The fall is magical!