North Cascades National Park, and Leavenworth, WA
(Plus a quick visit to Spokane’s Riverfront Park)
July 2021
Diablo Lake, North Cascades Nat’l Park. Yes, the water really looks like that due to “glacial flour”, ie., pulverized rock, that makes the water cloudy and turquoise- colored.
Washington state is a treasure trove of beautiful places to see and things to do. We love the Pacific Northwest!
We stopped briefly in Spokane at Riverfront Park. Some of the sights within this park include Spokane Falls, the clock tower, and the U.S. Pavilion from the 1974 World’s Fair. According to the Spokane city website, the clock tower was built in 1901-1902 and is 155 feet tall. It was originally part of the railroad depot, which was torn down. The clock has to be wound by hand once a week by turning a crank 99 times. The pavilion originally had a canvas cover during the World’s Fair, but was taken down a few years later because it became badly torn. The pavilion is now an event center, and it periodically holds light shows.
Top of U.S. Pavilion from underneath
Spokane Falls, with the U.S. Pavilion in the background
From Spokane, we drove to Leavenworth, a cute town with a Bavarian Alps theme. The shops, hotels, and restaurants are all designed to look like they belong in a German village. Some restaurants offered wienerschnitzel and sausages. One interesting shop had a large nutcracker museum. It was fun to browse the shops, but we happened to be there when it was very hot, so we visited the pedestrian-only shopping area in the morning and evening, and went back to our air-conditioned RV in the afternoon.
There were lots of flowers in planters and hanging baskets everywhere.
Many buildings had interesting murals or other motifs painted on them, and the shops had cute signs hanging above their doors.
There were lots of restaurants and ice cream shops, but the Gingerbread Factory was my favorite. Their big gingerbread cookies were so yummy!
The Gingerbread Factory had many decorative designs on display in their entryway.
We wanted to have dinner here, because we love brats, but we would have had to eat outside, and it was just too hot out.
From Leavenworth, we continued west to our campground near the west entrance of North Cascades Nat’l Park. There are only very, very small towns close to this park. Maybe that’s one reason why this is a less-visited park. That, and the long winters. But Diablo Lake alone is worth the visit. That view and the color of the water! Wow! We brought a cooler with our lunch and sat at one of the picnic tables at the overlook, so we could just stay longer looking at that view.
Phone camera, again, so not great quality. I can’t edit phone pics well enough to get the colors right!
Other things we did while we were here included walking some easy trails. We went to Gorge Lake, which is smaller than Diablo. We also walked trails in the little company town of Newhalem, owned by Seattle City Light. The electric company built dams on the Skagit River in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s to generate power for the Seattle area. These dams formed Ross, Diablo, and Gorge lakes. The trails we walked there included Trail of the Cedars and the trail by the Gorge Powerhouse to Ladder Creek Falls.
Gorge Lake
The sign next to this western red cedar said this tree is 188 ft. tall, and 7 ft. 6 in. diameter. Craig was sorry he touched the bark, as the sap was very sticky and hard to clean off his hand!
A portion of Ladder Creek Falls—a pretty spot.
We knew a portion of Hwy 20 (North Cascades Highway) east of the park was closed due to a large forest fire. However, we were told by a ranger that the road was not closed at the Washington Pass overlook. We decided to give it a shot. This pass is not within park boundaries, but it is a scenic drive to this overlook of Liberty Bell Mountain and Early Winter Spires. The drive was nice, until we got close to the overlook. The smoke was so heavy there that we could hardly see the mountains, even though they are pretty close to the road. I had to wear my mask because it was hard to breathe. It was sad to see.
Liberty Bell Mountain—This picture makes the smoky sky look better than it actually was.
On our last day in the area, we boondocked at a Harvest Host—Ovenell’s Heritage Inn. One of the best places we’ve stayed, (because our spot was bigger than just about anywhere else we’ve been, and quiet—no highway or train noise) and it was free, except for what we bought from them: jelly, ground beef, and home-baked goods. We walked down a short trail to the Skagit River, bringing our folding chairs, and sat in the cool shade, enjoying the peace. The river was an unusual milky-silver color there. The host told us it was because of muddy glacial flour coming from what she called the Chocolate Glacier on the nearby mountain.
beautiful spot on the Skagit River
We enjoyed our time in this part of Washington. Next up: Whidbey Island!