Dan's Mom had great improvement in her medical situation, so we decided it was time to move on down the road. After spending one night in Winthrop Washington, we drove across Washington Pass on highway 20 into the North Cascades National Park.
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| Great view of the Liberty Bell |
Stepping outside to feel the cool moist air that is filled with rich earthy smells of soil and trees brings back memories of camping during our early years.
We don't remember seeing Cottonwood seedlings floating in the woods when we went camping many years ago, however here in the national park, they were everywhere. Giving the illusions of tiny fairies floating and swirling around in a magical forest….
.....delightful….enchanting....
tickling my nose....sneezing..........a lot!
.....despite the hay-fever, we are enjoying every new discovery.
Sandy took a lot of photos between waterfalls, moss covered trees, and wildflowers. She has loaded them into our Webshots albums into 2 separate folders. One folder has a lot of Macro shots. Our first day was perfect with the sun shining through the treetops giving her plenty of photo ops. Our walks turned into long ones because she spent more time taking Macro shots then walking.
This area has so many textures and different shades of green with occasional pops of brilliant colors from wildflowers. It is almost an overload of color, textures, and smells.
While walking the cats, Sandy and Hitch were driving each other crazy. She wanted to take pictures and he actually wanted to walk. Sandy spent a lot of time trying to coax Hitch in going her direction, but he would not change his mind. He was on the move and he wanted to go his way. In the meantime, Dusty was doing his own exploring. He was walking on top of fallen logs and actually trying to climb a few trees. Meowing quite often. He was a very happy cat. Squirrel and Max also enjoyed their time outdoors, but not like the other two. We think all the cats wore out their sniffers because they were all in a deep sleep that afternoon.
The last couple of days were perfect for water shots with overcast weather and an occasional sprinkle of rain. We drove back up the pass and stopped several times to view waterfalls. The rivers are running deep and swift from all the snow runoff.
Newhalem is a company owned town. Seattle City Light built the small town of Newhalem and maintains the dams on the west side of the North Cascades. The town is small, but beautiful as they tried to keep much of Mother Nature present with large green areas filled with trees and flowers. There is a small grocery store and the company’s old housing looks well-maintained and spacious.
They even have a gazebo built from recycled parts from Diablo's switchyard. The shadows it makes are interesting, but not much cover when it rains.
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| Temple of Power Gazebo |
With no hook-ups, we decided to spend only three nights in the National Park. We will be staying in Concrete, WA for two weeks before moving on to Blaine, WA.
Since our arrival, it has been raining. We are hoping for a break in the weather later this week so we can go visit Baker Lake and Mt. Baker's National Park.
By the way, if you are active duty, now is a good time to get an annual pass from the National Park Service. They are free with proper ID information. Go to http://www.store.usgs.gov/pass/military.html.
For the past couple of days, we have been following a Scottish nine-year-old's blog on school lunch food and raising money for an under-privileged kitchen for children. She was recently in the news when the school officials told her she could no longer critic or take photos of her school meals for her blog. The blog has gone viral. We have added Neverseconds to our Blog list at the right.
We plan to spend the next several months on the Washington and Oregon coastline using our Thousand Trails membership campground chain.
