Saturday Drive

Even though it was cloudy on Saturday, we decided to jump in and drive up to Shelton, we wanted to go up to the Walmart Supercenter that they have there. It is a shame that the Walmart we have here is not a Supercenter, as I couldn’t believe my eyes when we walked into the store. I had never been inside one of their Supercenters before, so I was in for quite a treat. I know now when I need to go to Walmart where I am going.

I decided instead of going the usual route to take the back road. I had heard it was a beautiful drive through there but had never taken the time to just look up the route on google and drive. I took my camera, but never had the chance to stop and take many pictures. Selena was a little nervous, one might say scared, she doesn’t like getting off the beaten path and is always scared that we are lost, especially when it seems to her that we are driving way up into the mountains. She complained all the way there, then just really panicked on the way home declaring with tears, that we were lost. She just knew that we were lost. Poor thing!

She did however enjoy coming around a corner and suddenly there was a bridge for us to cross.

Papa and I had to chuckle as she got so excited because truly it isn’t much of a bridge. You can see though from the trees on the other side of the bridge, the beauty that we drove through all the way up there and back.

We got the surprise of our lives, as we came around another corner and there was a speed zone that dropped from 45 mph down to 25 mph, just like that. We knew we were getting close to Matlock, WA, but knew there wasn’t much there so we didn’t really know why we were slowing down so quickly. Well it was just a few seconds and this beautiful lake appeared.

Lake Nahwatzel

We had never even heard of this lake. It is a beautiful mountain lake, which at one time had a resort, RV camping, and cabin rentals. I thought I would do a quick search to see how much a cabin would cost to rent, only to get disappointed when I discovered that it appears the public resort has been closed. I think we will drive back up there here real soon though, and pull in and inquire, as there was a sign that did say cabin rentals. I would not want to miss an opportunity to go camping at such a beautiful lake just because I took the word of what appeared to be an angry ex-owner of the resort.

It was nice to just go for this family drive. It was so different for me to see how much Shelton truly has grown up. I remember as a child, when my brother lived in Shelton, there wasn’t anything there. I didn’t get to see everything they have, but there was the Walmart, a Fred Meyer, and probably much more. I do plan on going back up here soon to see what else is there.

Next time we do though I will have to try to stop and get a picture of the Elk exiting sign, because Selena missed that sign and would not believe us when we told her to watch for elk. She insisted there were no elk up there as she didn’t see an Elk crossing sign. She thinks every animal that lives in a particular area has to have a place to cross the road, and it has to be marked by a sign. She cracks me up sometimes.

This is just another example of the beauty that surrounds us in all directions. This is another reason that I absolutely love where we have come, where we live, and why I never want to leave this area. There is just way too much beauty to discover.