October 12, 2023 North Cascades National Park, Washington

 68, sunny and beautiful.

Much of the east side of North Cascades is in the Okanogan national forest. The yellow trees are larches, which is a type of deciduous pine tree that turns yellow and looses it's needles in the fall. Washington pass goes over these mountains. You can see the road heading left to right near the bottom of the mountains. The is the pass that we waited till between storms so we would not get caught in snow up there. 

Looking east from Washington pass. There is a  big forest fire in the park. This is the worst of the smoke we saw. 

Diablo Lake. It is filled with water from the many glaciers in the park, As the glaciers move over the rocks it grinds up the rocks into a fine powder called glacier flour. The flour makes the lake a beautiful light blue green. The fire is up a side canyon on the right. At one point it was with in 500 feet of the powerhouse and dam at the base of this lake. It did not go farther, but a lot of the park is closed because of the fire. We went over Loup Loup pass first, at 4,000 feet. on the Cascade Scenic loop, through Twisp and then over Washington pass at 5,400 feet. The high peaks are only around 10,000 feet here. Tree line is around 5,000 feet, unlike the Rockies with the high peaks 14,000 and tree line at 11,000. I love it, I can hike at high altitude here and only be around 5,000 feet and breath great. The parks season is over, all campgrounds are closed except the one we are in, so it is FREE!, there are bears here and since we are down valley from 3 dams there is a siren that sounds if a dam breaks. They test it everyday at noon. A fungus called witches butter. 

We scored a spot big enough for the bus at Goodall campground. It is the only campground still open in the park. It is FREE, but the water is turned off and there is no trash pickup. The area is temperate rainforest, so there is thick foliage, ferns, moss etc. It is lovely. Seattle City Light built three dams on the three lakes in the Cascades here starting in the 1920's. Three dams, three lakes and three powerhouses. They built the company town of Newhalem which is still here preserved as it was at a much earlier era. 

The Temple of Power was built by artist in residence Dan Carson using recycled bushings from the Diablo switch yard to support the ceiling. John is under it trying to channel some power, but no luck. I am pictured in one of the massive turbine runners from the Gorge Dam Powerhouse. 

John on the suspension bridge that starts the Cedar's trail. It is a trail though some old growth cedar trees along the Skagit river. The Skagit river is also a beautiful blue green from the glacial flour in the water from the glaciers.

Fall colors and the beautiful blue green Skagit river. John holding up one of the old growth cedars. 

Beautiful dappled sunlight in the cedar grove. John is standing on this stump saying, 'I don't know what kind of tree this was, I am stumped!'

Lovely light and color along the trail. A row of old growth cedar trees with moss hanging from the branches.

There is moss growing on everything. John with the old growth cedar trees. 

John on the suspension bridge by the Gorge Powerhouse on the way to the Ladder falls trail. Small falls on the river on the way to the big falls.

 Silk stocking Rd, purple berries, Bachelor Ln, vine maple, moss grows on everything. Ladder Falls. On the left is the bottom fall and to the right are two of the falls above the bottom one. 

The gardens were set up as an example of what electricity could do in the 1920's. The paths were lit at night, there was a colored light show on the falls and the ground in the garden was heated so exotic plants like orchids could grow in it. Tree roots on other trees.

 The entrance to the Gorge power house. You can go in a see an exhibit and the huge turbines at work. But it closed at 4 pm and we were late. Beautiful Japanese maples.

 One of the engines from the railroad that was built up here to bring the supplies for building the dam.