It was a rainy foggy day so we decided to drive into North Cascade National Park. We had never heard of this national park, and we thought we knew all the big ones. According to the Audubon guide it is the least visited park in the US. The pacific northwest is a very wet area, gets some of the highest rainfall in the nation. This park has 300 glaciers in it. The dramatic mountains are glacier carved and very, very lush.
From the lookout at Washington pass you can see the fog down by where we are camped. The second photo is the other side of the pass, the valley is full of fog.
It creeped down into the trees. The Pacific Crest Trail goes down the crest of the Pacific mountains from Canada to Mexico through Washington, Oregon and California.
The sun popped out and the clouds kind of dissipated for our view of Diablo Lake. It has the fine rock dust deposited by the glaciers dissolved in it, so it is turquoise in certain light. The color does not even look real. Diablo lake is formed by a dam, there are three dams right in this area, Ross Dam, Diablo Dam and Gorge Dam. They make power for Seattle.
Diablo Lake. Lichen covered trees and moss on the trail to overlook the Gorge dam.
More trees and the moss along the trail.
More moss on the trail. At the visitors center they had an art exhibit of art of the park. This was one of the poems.
And this is a photo of a beaver swimming in the sunset reflection by Steve Philbrick. John seated on a giant banana slug wearing the new hat I bought him for his birthday season.
Look Sherlock Holmes. John says he was transferring all the knowledge from the old hat to the new hat. He is always entertaining to travel with. This post card reminds me of some of the views of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Our next stop was at the power company visitors center. When they built the three dams here they also built a town for the workers called Newhalem. John is peeping through part of one of the turbines, the runner. I loved this Temple of Power in the park. It is built out of old resistors arcing power.
This is the power house for the Gorge dam. It was built in 1929 and is still in use. They run the water 2 miles down river from the dam in a tunnel to the power house. The water is still the turquoise color of Diablo lake. The turbines inside.
The Skagit ( pronounce Ska-jet) river after all the dams. It looked like it was a WILD river in a deep canyon before the three dams. Our next stop was the Ladder falls. This is the water below the falls. They used to have this exotic garden around the falls. The power company brought tourists by the trainload up for a scenic tour in the 30’s, they toured the gardens, and they had a light show which was not working while we were there.
Ladder falls.
In the garden a tree growing off the side of another living tree. On the way back there was fog on Diablo lake.
The sun also came out for our trip back over the two passes. The peaks are very jagged and steep here.
View East and the Liberty bell.
Giant mosses and lichens, ferns. Back at camp John rigged a tarp over the picnic table to protect us from the rain so we could eat outside.
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