Mountain sleigh ride

BrentR

Every Christmas I take my wife and daughter up to Leavenworth which is a small bavarian themed town in the middle of the Cascade mountains. Ten miles north of the town is Eagle Creek Ranch which has sleigh rides. It was 20 deg (F) with a slight north breeze that made it feel much colder. The ride lasts about an hour and winds through the mountains and pine trees.

And yes they even take you "over the river" but not quite to grandmother's house. During the ride everyone is covered with two heavy wool blankets so it was not too cold. The sleigh driver was a complete nutball that sang great and told really bad jokes. When we got back to the lodge we hung out next to the fireplace and drank spiced wine and hot chocolate.

I shot some video of the ride.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hLunkxL3JF0

It was alot of fun and I highly recomend it to everyone if you have a chance to go on one. After the ride we went back into town and watched the tree lighting ceremony and did some sledding in the park.

alt

My daughter Jessica and the sleigh "pilot". She had to thank the horses in person for the great ride.

alt

After the ride we went back into town for the tree lighting ceremony. Leavenworth was voted to be one of the top five Christmas towns in the US. The German resturants, bakeries, craft shops and candy stores are amazing.

alt

uwishufish

I've always wanted to do that. To out of shape to ski so I don't get to the western mts during the winter anymore. Although I did ride the Amtrak Cascades.

Guess it will have to wait till the new system.

Just Kidding

Open mind

Sounds positively PAGAN! What a horrible father you are Brent R!

;-)

Looks like a great time. (If I wasn't on Firefox you'd see a couple big thums up right here.)

Haven't seen you 'round these parts in a while. Nice to hear from you.

Open Mind

BrentR

Of course my wife and daughter had to visit darn near every store there. I lost count somwhere after 30 or 35.

On the way up we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls and watched the morning frozen fog swirl around it. Everything there was coated in ice.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ku8PKXZ_ET0

alt

We took the back roads through North Bend and I got a shot of Mt Si with the fog lifting of the valley and a peak of the fresh snow that fell on the summit the previous night.

alt

juni

Thank you Brent for sharing the video and pictures... gorgeous scenery! Beautiful breed of horse.

Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Juni

momzcrazy

Absolutely beautiful. What great memories for your family! Thanks for sharing, and for making me homesick for the west.

momz

BrentR

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and gets to spend some precious time with your family. Experiences will be remembered long after the expensive gifts are forgotten about.

Christmas is not about shopping malls!

RisingEagle

Brent, thanks for sharing the beautiful photos, good job on making great memories for the family.

Christmas is not about shopping malls!

Excellent.

(As an aside one of the Christian rock stations on our airway's big give away for the season was a trip to the Mall of America and $1000 to shop. Oops.)

Barbie Doll

wow ; that looks like fun.

BrentR

It was fun and it was also a great way to get into the holiday mood since malls have the opposite affect on me. I have either owned or been around horses my whole life and I never once have been on a sleigh.

Those Belgium draft horses are amazing critters. Each one was pulling 1 1/2 times thier own weight and after the ride they were breathing normal within a couple minutes. Must have been just a light workout for them.

I can understand why it took so long for tractors and other working vehicles to replace draft horses.

Mountain sleigh ride

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