A Return To North Cascades National Park

After our visit to Seattle, Onions and I headed to the North Cascades National Park.  We had taken a day trip a few years back but Highway 20 was closed due to snow and we saw little.  Our first hope was to see Mount Shuksan.  Hoping to access it from the Mount Baker Ski Area, this is what we got.

And, yes, you'll see this same outfit, or some variation of it through all pictures from this trip.  I didn't wear pants the entire rest of the trip!

After the cloudy and rainy trip to still unseen Mount Shuksan, and a scramble to find some butane for our camp stove (Mom and Dad, we left ours at your house!), we drove into the North Cascades National Park along Hwy 20 to our campsite at Newhalem Campground. 

Actually, the drive along Hwy 20 is through the Ross Lake National Recreation Area.  Most of North Cascades Park itself is only accessed through back country trails.  On our first full day, in North Cascades, rain and overcast skies. 

Driving east, we crossed over Washington Pass.

Looking east down towards the Methow Valley (where the mountains make the right turn)

Washington Pass

We continued east and ended up in Winthrop, and as you would expect in Eastern Washington, it was sunny and hot.  We stopped in for pastries and coffee.

On the drive back, we stopped in to walk around the Rolling Huts complex.  It appears that, although the huts roll, they haven't actually moved in a while.

Just east of Washington Pass, we decided to hike up to Cutthroat Lake.

Beautiful as it was, I could only imagine how much more amazing it would have been to be there with blue skies.

But after about five minutes, the bugs got us and we hustled back to the car.

On the drive home, the sun started to come out!  We were hopeful that it would remain sunny for the rest of our stay.

The new shower tent!

Roast nuts for breakfast!  I now understand why you get offered warm nuts in first class on an airplane.

On our second full day, we had scheduled a boat ride on Diablo Lake.  Turns out the Skagit River has three dams on it, which generate about 20% of the electricity for the city of Seattle.

Sun and clouds again.  No pics from the boat ride because, well, it wasn't that spectacular and also, I took a very typical Chen nap.

After the boat ride, we looked at the map to try and find a way to get UP INTO the mountains to try and find a grand vista.  So we drove up a river road for 14 some miles.  We could see the mountains, but they were still obscured by clouds.

Alas, we got to a place where we were forced to park because they were clearing trees from the road and doing construction.  Plus, to get up, we had to hike 14 miles round trip.  Wasn't in the cards.

Ross Dam lit up at night with Ross Lake in the foreground.

This picture is a good summary of our days in North Cascades....sometimes clear, like the hill in the foreground and clouds obscuring the mountains.  Not to worry...we suffered some not so great weather here and were rewarded with perfect weather for 90% of the rest of the trip.