October 13-15, 2023 North Cascades National Park

 68 and mostly cloudy today.

We went back to the Powerhouse to see the exhibit and the turbines when they were open today. Pretty impressive, the whole building vibrates from the power of the water and turbines. We hiked up Newhalem Creek. Very pretty. 

More of Newhalem  Creek. Curly branch, mushrooms, cool looking pattern on a stump, and ferns and moss growing on a rock. 

John waiting patiently while I take photos. The trail description said that the trail went to an old growth forest by the creek. They failed to mention that the trees were all burnt and dead. 

Dead trees with fall color. Then we went to the Rock shelter. Nice bridge to the site.

The rock shelter is a cave like campsite used 1400 years ago by hunting and gathering upper Skagit native Americans.  John on the trail back. There is moss and ferns  growing on the rocks and dirt by the trail.

We did not have a sunset, rain clouds are moving in. At one point there were lights in the garden and colored lights on the waterfalls. A guy in the campground said they put new ones in and we should go see them. We walked on the suspension bridge by the Gorge powerhouse here tonight to get to the trail to the falls. The trail in the garden was lit, but the falls were not. Too bad, I had wanted to see the falls.

I am holding a leaf from an aptly named tree-Big Leaf Maple. John standing by the raft put in at the end of our campground. 

John sitting in the group shelter in our campground. Today we walked on the River Trail. 

Dragon looking mossy log. An old growth fir and red cedar,. The red cedar has mossy branches. 

I love the blue green color of the Skagit river.  John walking among 4 old growth trees. He is in the center on the path.

Which way is the River trail?? We also walked the To Know a Tree trail. A quote on the sign for the tree trail- "To know a tree . . . is to be in touch with one of natures most grand expressions", Moss and lichen on a tree trunk, The Salish Salmon from the group shelter, Fall leaves and three trees growing on a stump. River Trail. I love how the vine maple understory seems to just hang in the air. 

Looking up an old growth tree at the mossy  dead limbs under the live limbs on top. Mushrooms seen today. There were a lot of dead salmon in the river. They come up here to spawn, then they die. We are at the Goodell Creek campground. 

 A tree growing on a tree.   From the view point near the visitors center. The Picket range. 'The visible peaks are  a small fraction of the vast glaciated range beyond the highway corridor. Only 10 air miles away, trail-less Picket range is a place where the terms "wild" and 'remote' become real.'