It's been an extra cool and rainy spring in Seattle.  Luckily, late this week the sun broke through the clouds and today was predicted to be near perfect.  No clouds with a high in the mid-60's.  To celebrate I headed out towards North Bend very early to hike the Rattlesnake Ledge trail and if I had any steam left, the Cedar Butte trail in Iron Horse State Park too.  Luckily they are located right next to each other off I-90 at exit 32.  Rattlesnake Mountain is on the right hand side of the road and Iron Horse is on the left.

As I drove out I-90 I snapped a picture of the cool clear morning.  I knew the forecasters were right and I was excited.  I arrived at the parking area next to Rattlesnake Lake a little before 7 AM and took a couple of pictures before heading up the 2 mile trail to Rattlesnake Ledge.  The trail to the ledge is extremely popular and on a beautiful day like today I knew it would be jam packed.  For me, having a lot of other people around kind of defeats one of  the purposes of hiking, which is to get away.  So I was glad that I got up early and found a nearly empty parking lot.  From the parking lot Rattlesnake Mountain looked awesome in the clear sky.