Fall trip to Bellingham and a ride on Mt. Baker Byway... to Mt. Shuksan

In early October it was a beautiful day so I took my dog and we went for a drive :) I LOVE driving when the weather is nice and there are fun things to look at.. and I also LOVE Victorian style houses. So I bought a book called something along the lines of ... Victorian homes in the Pacific Northwest, when I was in Astoria, Oregon last year. There is only one in Seattle, but there were a few in Bellinhgam, Washington- so I started my drive that day by walking through/driving to the neighborhoods of these three houses.

Peanut, my driving buddy, bright and perky at the beginning of our road trip!

Some of the rolling hills we passed on the drive up reminded me of living in East Tennessee. I am a fan of all hills/mountains/inclines.. :) 

These houses were not in the book, but I thought they were adorable! Made me wonder if Bellingham is a place I could settle down in one day (presuming I do settle down..)

Here was the first of one of the houses from the book.. it was behind a lot of trees and hard to see without massively trespassing in their yard.. but it had lots of great detail, especially in the trim.

One house had these random but cool creations their yard!

The side of the previous house, you can see a little more here... 

The second house in the book... I realllllly loved this one.

And the last house! What a cool tower!

We had lunch at a cute place in town that was dog friendly on their porch and then made our way along the Mt. Baker Scenic highway for another two hours or so.. not even really knowing where we would end up! 

It was a really pretty drive!

Some of the Fall color we saw along the way...

A cute little stream that I heard long before I saw... when we stopped at the Ranger Station along the way..

Puller over to take some pics while driving on the way up to Artist Point.. the end of the Scenic By Way

I got back in the car after taking some pictures and Peanut was up and ready to go!

The first Mountain sighting!

We kept driving and passed what looked like a hotel and a weird amount of cars, and all of a sudden I turned the left and saw this!!!

It hit me like a ton of bricks and was amazing!

Mount Shuksan!!

This is actually Highwood Lake...

This was literally one of the most breathtaking sights I have ever seen. The best part was I didn't even know I would see this on the drive! It was a total surprise!

 I just had to document Peanut's first Mountain visit!

This one is Picture lake... a slightly different view...

More pics from Picture Lake....

You could see a little more Fall color at this lake..

Here is actually a shot of the road we were on and the two lakes. Turns out the hotel I saw was the Chalet at Mt. Baker.. and further up was a ski resort that wasn't open yet. Looks like it would be a great place to stay at in the Winter!

As we kept driving up past the lakes and to Artist Point...

View from up top at Artist Point

Some Gorgeous Fall color at the top of Artist Point...

 You can see JUST the tip of Mount Baker which was hiding behind the clouds...  (With a little Instagram filter to enahnce the colors) ;)

One last view as we were leaving.... 

By the end of the day (about 7 hours later) Poor Peanut was ready to go home!

It was a gorgeous day, drive and a lovely surprise as I didn't know I would see any of what I saw! :)