Today was suppose to be the sunniest and warmest day of the week.

Well,  I never saw the sun, but it wasn’t very cold and the wind was minimal, the weather was pleasant enought and not too much snow on the ground.

I had asked a friend to hike with me and had received a message back that she couldn’t make it today.

So I planned a hike near Costco that I had never been on before.

When she called back to say she could hike, I told her my plans to hike to Pulpit Rock off Nevada Avenue. She thought that sounded interesting, so we met up at Costco at noon and I drove us to the trail head.

I had researched this hike on the internet and everyone made it sound difficult to find the trail head and had different landmarks where to turn off Nevada Avenue.

It actually is just past way past Harley Davidson, and just past Luisa Graf near a power station. The Trail Head entrance is marked quite obviously from the road.

In the distance you can see our goal, Pulpit Rock formation.

A gentleman with a Black dog full of energy named Pepper were just starting out as we headed through the entrance.

We asked him if he hiked there before and he said nearly every day. Since I knew the trail wasn’t well marked, we asked which way to go at various intersections.

I did remember that most of the people had said to turn right at most intersections, but not all of them.

He and Pepper hiked with us until it was about to get steep. And if we were to make it to the Pulpit Rock Formation we would have to start climbing. He seemed to be And he kept telling us how steep it was and it could be icy, etc. We bid him farewell and took a trail to the left and began our ascent. And it did get steeper, but no worse than other trails we had climbed before. Though it was a bit icier than we were used to . . .

Not many people had traveled that trail since it had snowed, but it was easy to follow the tracks of the few that had.

I still seem to have the remnants of my cold, and that slowed me a bit, but I just kept on trekking and stopping to take photos and admire the view. Whereas my hiking partner was invigorated by the cool weather and seemed to easily climb up the trail. Somewhere, I did pass her, and I reached the top first.

What an interesting place. I would like to see it in the summer, but the snow made for interesting patterns of pure white on the white rocks.

The Pulpit concept made it feel very filled with spiritual energy.

And I got lost in the white rock formations. Faces and creatures abounded in my vision.

I couldn’t decide if this formation reminded me more of
a tall Priest Preaching to the Masses below,
Or Bird about to Take Flight.

What do you think?