We arrived in Marblemount, population 203, and settled in at a small private campground. Marblemount is the last place to get gas and supplies for the next 75 miles before entering the park.  The campground was conveniently less than a mile from the entrance to North Cascades National Park.  After setting up camp we went to the closest ranger station to get maps and details on the park.

 North Cascades National Park, nicknamed “North American Alps”, is made up of 505,000 acres with jagged peaks, sheer canyons, countless waterfalls, and over 300 glaciers.  The area receives incredible amounts of snowfall each year and many parts of the park are closed from late November to late April.  Some of the roads we traveled had only been open since July 1st. Surprisingly, we found out that this park has more glaciers than any other US park other than Alaska. We thought that honor would have gone to Glacier National Park. A ranger told us that there is more water in one North Cascades glacier than all the glaciers in Glacier National Park.

 We spent time driving on the North Cascades Scenic Highway, stopping at many overlooks including Ross Lake, Ross Dam, Diablo Lake, Diablo Dam, Gorge Lake and Gorge Dam, which gave us incredible views of Canada to the north and valleys below.

At Diablo Lake Overlook we attended a Ranger talk about the power of ice.  One startling statistic she told us is that the number of glaciers has diminished by half, in less than 100 years, due to climate change.  We hesitate to use the words “global warming” but the Ranger had photographs of the glaciers in twenty year increments and it was amazing to see the shrinkage of the glaciers in recent times.  While the area gets a lot of snow, the amount of rain instead of snow is increasing.  She said the number of glaciers is increasing because some of the large glaciers are breaking up and becoming two or more instead of just one large glacier.  Her talk certainly gave us something to ponder.

 Ross, Diablo and Gorge dams were built between 1919 and 1967 as part of the Skagit River hydro-electric project and form three reservoirs which supply electricity to the city of Seattle.

Ross Lake, which begins in Canada, is the largest of the three reservoirs.

Diablo Lake is a brilliant turquoise blue caused by refracted light on fine rock sediment called glacial flour.

 We found a nice boardwalk trail through the forest with a lovely little waterfall.  Also during our visit to the park and surrounding area we were able to find several geocaches.  While getting one of the caches we met a husband and wife who were teachers on their summer vacation.  It is always nice to meet fellow cachers in our travels and find a geocache together.

Another day we drove up to Baker Lake with a beautiful view of Mt Baker.  You will notice the water rushing downstream here is not blue but a gray color because of silt from the glaciers. Baker Lake is 9 miles long and a popular camping, fishing and boating area.

As mentioned in an earlier posting, our plans changed due to the horrible Washington wildfires.  It was shocking to see on the news the reports of the devastation in towns not far from us.  Our hearts and prayers go out to the people affected by the fires and we pray for the safety of the firefighters.  Originally we planned to drive through the North Cascades National Park into eastern Washington to the northern tip of Idaho and then into northwestern Montana to Glacier National Park.  We have decided to continue on to Glacier National Park which means we backtrack down to Seattle and take I-90 across the state.  It makes for a longer drive and the interstate will not be nearly as beautiful and interesting as the drive through the Cascades, but we are determined to get to Glacier National Park this year.  Many thanks to all of you for your concern for our safety.  We will be on the move for the next week and will probably not have much time to post to the blog.  We will check in when we can.

 

We left Seaquest State Park the day before the 4^th of July. We noticed that early in the morning the rangers had put new reservation cards on all the campsites. The park was going to be full for the holiday and we had been able to enjoy the quiet before the storm of campers.

After a brief time on the freeway, we turned east and were on small state roads as we headed towards Mount Rainier National Park. We arrived at a very small private campground for our four night stay.  We were unable to get cell phone, internet or satellite tv as we were under a thick canopy of trees. This campground was very convenient as it was less than a mile from the entrance to the park.

After setting up we headed to one of the Visitors Centers called Paradise in the park. The drive there was beautiful as we rose to an elevation of 5400 feet, passing small waterfalls fed by melting snow along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mount Rainier National Park became a park in 1899 and was the nation’s fifth national park.

 

 

 

 

 

More than 97% of the park is wilderness which includes glaciers, forests, meadows, lakes and wetlands. One of the Rangers at Paradise told us that this area is the second snowiest place on earth, with Mount Baker, also in north Washington State being the first. This is due to the amount of moisture it receives from the Pacific Northwest. We were somewhat taken aback when we asked the Ranger about hiking trails and he told us the trails at Paradise were currently snow covered with three to six feet of packed snow. If we wanted to do any hiking in the park without snow we would have to go to a lower elevation.

 

We looked out of the massive windows at the Visitors Center and could see people walking up and down one of the snow packed trails. We could see those coming down often slipping and falling as the snow packed trail had turned to ice.

 

 

 

 

 

No thanks! We were unable to catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier as he was hiding behind a thick cloud cover. Once we reached a lower elevation on our drive down, Bill was able to capture a picture, though he had to be patient and wait for some clouds to pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day which was the 4^th of July, we arose early to get a head start on the holiday crowd. We drove to another location in the park called Sunrise Visitors Center. With an elevation of 6,400 feet, this is the highest point you can drive to in the park, and the views were amazing.

 

 

 

It was a bright sunny day and we were able to get great views of Mount Rainier and the surrounding mountains and valleys. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along the way we came upon a brown bear eating some grass along the side of the road.

We were pretty amazed to see him! We stopped and rolled down the window to take some pictures. He ignored us and kept eating, at one point crossing the road in front of the car to continue his lunch on the other side. By this time cars on both sides of the road had stopped to take pictures.

Mt Rainier is a 14,410 foot tall ice covered volcano. It is in the same class of volcanoes as Mt St Helens. Though the glaciers are not as massive as they once were, the 35 square miles of glaciers constitute the largest single peak glacier system in the lower 48 states. There are at least 25 glaciers with six of them originating at the summit ice cap. Each year approximately 10,000 people attempt to climb Mount Rainier. Almost half of those reach the summit. When we were at the Visitors Center they had a telescope outside and Bill spotted three climbers who looked like tiny dots high on the mountain. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate our picnic lunch while savoring this gorgeous view

 

 

 

 

 

and then drove back down to a lower elevation where we hiked to a beautiful waterfall.  I loved the bridge made from a log.