We spent two technicolor days earlier this week “out of territory,” visiting the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The festival runs the entire month of April, driven, of course, by the blooming time of the tulips. But it couldn’t come at a better time for the winter weary and color-starved visitors who flock to the area by the thousands. The vast fields of tulips are a welcome tonic and the palette of spring colors could jolt the severest winter catatonic back to life.
The Skagit Valley is a ferry ride and easterly drive from the Olympic Peninsula to a broad agricultural valley 60 miles north of Seattle. Vast fields showcase the gorgeous flowers that are sold as both cut flowers and, later on, as bulbs by the valley’s two primary growers.
To call it “eye candy” would be an understatement. Though I trained my camera on a good many other sights, I came home with over 300 shots. Wish me luck as I pare down the selection. . .and come back over the next few days to tiptoe through the tulips with me.