August 8, 2011 North Cascades NP

Scoop's view

We set out to explore North Cascades National Park about mid-morning. The road from Marblemount to the Visitor Center followed the Skagit River up through a valley with farms. The Visitor Center was the start of a few trails, where We took one longer trail that took us down to the Skagit River, and another reputed to end at  Henry "Scoop" Jackson's favorite overlook of the Cascades. Jackson was the  former longtime senator from Washington state and  instrumental in getting North Cascades NP set aside. Unfortunately, the mountain tops were swathed in a large puffy cloud when we first arrived at trails end.
The longer trail took us down to the Skagit River that was still running fast as a result of last winter's superabundance of snow and passed through old growth forest. 

We left the center and headed further into the Park and traveled through Newhalem,a historic town now in the park, but there is not much to it now.  Beyond the town,the road starts winding and is hemmed in by very steep mountain sides.  The scenery was spectacular the way the snow-capped mountains appeared as the road twisted next to the river.  

As late as 1939 no one thought some of its mountain ranges (Pickett) could be crossed.  This is a complex (Stephen Mather Wilderness) encompassing the North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas and North Cascades National Forest. The steepness of the mountains and the amount of snow (one of the snowiest places on earth) is actually building glaciers.  (Less snow melts each year than actually falls.)

Lovely view despoiled by power lines

Our next stop was at the Diablo and Ross Lake Dams. In the 20s and 30s, these dams and electric generating stations were built to supply power to Seattle. We were struck, as we toured this area of the park, how the high tension power line towers really deface the beauty of the mountains. And we were reminded of the fight now going on in NH where Hydro Quebec, National Grid, and PSNH, our state power company wants to erect towers in a line that will slice through NH's beautiful north country through the White Mountains. Looking at this, we hope that never happens.

Further along, we stopped at the dramatic Diablo and Washington Pass Overlooks. Diablo overlook boasted winds of at least 40 mph. We were told that this is standard for this particular spot because the mountains are so high and close together. Washington Pass was something of a surprise, and we almost didn't stop there, because of a sign we saw that indicated that the area was closed. We stopped anyway, and, in spite of a lack of any signs showing where to walk, we found a trail that led to an outlook with close to 360 degree panoramas of some fantastic mountain and valley scenes.

View from Gorge Creek Bridge

Near this pass, we walked the 2-mile Rainy Lake Trail which passed some scenic waterfalls on the way.  Rainy Lake sits in a glacial cirque, rimmed with mountains, and accented with waterfalls. It reminded us of Avalanche Lake at Glacier National Park, green water and all.

By now, we had traversed the majority of the northern park road and the hour was getting late, so we decided to turn back. On our return, we stopped at the Gorge Creek Bridge, which crosses a narrow gorge filled with rushing water from a dramatic waterfall.  As the metal pedestrian bridge was very high over the gorge, Ray declined to walk out to the middle.

From there we headed back to the Visitor Center, even though it was closed, to see if we could get a picture of "Scoop's" Picket Range without the obscuring cloud in front of it that was there this morning.  It was mostly clear and after snapping a few pictures we headed back to our motel. 

There, we found a note stuck in our door. Apparently, we had left our room key on the bed. The owner of the motel, after coming in to wash our dishes, and freshen up towels, left the room unlocked for us, so we could get in at whatever time we returned. She mentioned in the note that the power had been out for 8 hours because of a tree that had fallen on the main electric line by the road to the west. She had kept an eye on our room during the day. Nice place, nice people.