Nature and Praise

A 3.3 mile hike up and down a mountain with a rise of 660 feet from the parking lot.

A dream come true.

That was what happened last Saturday. Eight months ago I couldn’t walk across a room on my own. One year ago, we were vacationing at the coast. Sweet Hubby and Sonshine disappeared down a gorgeous trail as I waited in the car, sore and sad. I so wanted to be with them and wondered if I would ever walk on a path again.

This is praise to God, who is still working miracles today! I thank my Lord Jesus for His infinite mercy and love! He is wonderful!

Even more amazing is that we did quite a bit of walking earlier that day at a local park called Manito. If you ever visit the Spokane area during warm weather months, you have got to visit this place. It’s beautiful! Here are some highlights from our day. We took about 90 pictures, so this is a very small sampling.

We began with a picnic near the rose gardens.

A shot from the dahlia bed nearby.

The rock walls along the steps were covered with green growing things.

I love formal, finely manicured gardens. This one is quite large. At the opposite end is a water fountain and small gazebo, I believe. You can see Kylen on the stairs.

The Japanese Gardens has a lovely path that winds its way around a large pond with fish. The entire garden is fenced in.

It has a small waterfall and stream flowing into the pond which may be crossed by stepping stones.

The conservatory totally blew me away. I was amazed at the variety of plants and how attractively they were arranged. I could have easily taken a hundred pictures in there, but Sonshine was anxious to move on, and Sweet Hubby didn't quite understand the attraction. Oh well! I told them they can drop me off sometime while they go do something else so I can enjoy the displays more thoroughly.

Oh no! I forgot to bring two leashes! Hee-hee!

I did a quick search and found some good links with information about Manito Park:
http://www.thefriendsofmanito.org/
http://www.manitogardens.com/
http://www.manitopark.org/
Next, we headed for Mineral Ridge, a national recreation trail. I grew up in the backwoods of Idaho, and this is characteristic of the sort of scenery I was accustomed to. Ponderosa pine, douglas-fir, ocean-spray, snowberry, and wild roses.

We stopped frequently on the journey up so I could rest. On many of those breaks Greg read to us from the trail guide available at the entrance. There were twenty-two stations marked with corresponding narrative descriptions in the booklet.


This is the view from the top of the mountain. You can see the highway and Lake Coeur d'Alene.


I noticed that many people had stopped to scratch their initials on Caribou Cabin and rushed to add mine. Greg was appalled until I convinced him it isn't the same as graffiti. I fondly recalled myself and siblings carving our names on an old wooden bridge during a camping trip. We hope to visit there someday, and I am anxious to find those letters scrawled by childish hands so many years ago. Can you find GB, FB, and KB?


We began around four and finished around eight, so the sun was sinking as we made our descent. It lit the hill up with gold.


Here I am at the end of the hike. Our shoes were covered with dust, it was nearly dark, and we were anxious to give our aching legs a rest, but we were happy.


For more information on this trail click here.