North Cascades National Park

Whoa my goodness!!!!!! What I really mean to say is, holy shit!!!!! Ok, I had no idea that someplace so beautiful could exist on the planet, much less a five hour drive from my home!!! I finished up my first 12 week internship and had a week off before I start my next one and Walter and I decided to go someplace we had never been before. I usually hit Glacier Park sometime in the fall/late summer but they have all these regulations against dogs on trails so that did not sound like much fun.


So I was just dicking around online and was reminded of the North Cascades National Park. Though in the main park they have all these stupid dog regulations like the rest of the national parks, they also have two national recreation areas that allow doggies on leashes and where I decided to go was in these areas!!! So then I presented the idea to the house sitter (Nancy, aka occasional significant other) with the idea and told her if she found a house sitter (for the other seven dogs...minus Walter of course) that she could come with us. Guess what, she did, and we did and it was glorious...at least for us and maybe not for Krista the house sitter who was stuck with six dogs...ummmm...sorry about the shoes but we did warn you, and yes the cats can get the bathroom door open if the dogs tell them there is something good in there.


Anyway, Nancy, Walter and Lily (Walter's sister) and I took off on Monday morning for the North Cascades. The drive is about five and a half hours from my house in Spokane. On the way we got to see some incredible stuff, like Grand Coulee Dam, Lake Roosevelt, and the amazing glacial erratics and land forms around Nespelem. We also got to revisit the Omak Stampede grounds on our way through Omak. Once upon a time we went to the stampede and sold jewelry with this really bitchy man named David. We got pissed off at him and left at around midnight and drove back to Spokane. We were actually appalled by the whole Omak Stampeed thing because it was barbaric and we saw lots of real fights between drunk cowboys (wannabees) and Indians and we were rooting for the Indians even though it was just drunk cross-cultural violence. Basically, we got gas in Omak and got the hell out because our memories of the place were so damn bad.

We got to the Colonial Creek Campground at around 6 in the evening and set up camp. I had never been there in my life. My only experience with this part of the state was driving from Spokane to Vancouver, BC with my ex-best-friend Sharon to attend an anthropology conference. It was April and the road had just been opened and it was cloudy and snowy and I could not see a damn thing.


So here we were at the campground which is on the Thunder Arm of Diablo Lake, a pretty amazing piece of engineering along with Ross Lake and the Ross Lake dam which basically power the entire west side of the state of Washington. The water in the lakes is incredible. They are both fed by glacial melt water which has a lot of suspended particles in it. The particles in the water filter out all of the colors of the light spectrum except for an amazing turquois color which is reflected back to the surface of the water. And the water is COLD!!!!

The campground is divided into two campgrounds, one on each side of the highway. We stayed at the south campground which is in an old growth forest. Big huge trees, ferns the size of a Ford Festiva, and bushes with leaves the size of my head. It is lush and mossy and ethereal.

North Cascades National Park is pretty cool in several ways. There are over 300 glaciers within the park and more than 1600 identified species of plants. The terrain goes from temperate rain forest to alpine. I was so impressed with the scenery. It is like Glacier Park but better because the mountains are so close together. We could see glaciers from the campground. There is also not much to be seen from the one main road that goes through the park so you have to basically get out and hike or paddle on the lakes to experience the park.


On Tuesday we just goofed around at the campground and then took the canoe out for a spin on Diablo Lake. Getting the canoe there was quite an ordeal. On Monday the wind was really bad and even though I had the canoe tied down in six spots, the wind still got it and lifted it up just enough to slam it down on the rack wrong and the wood gunwales on one side spilt. I had to stop on the side of Highway 2 and tighten everything and add extra rope. It was kind of scary.

So we got the boat in the water just as the wind was starting to pick up. We crossed under the bridge and onto the main lake and paddled for about three minutes before the whitecaps started. We then went back onto Thunder Arm and paddled around a bit and looked up the valley at the glaciers and mountains. We could see a storm rolling in and the mountains to the west of us were getting snow about 1,000 feet above the lake. We paddled back to the boat ramp just as it was starting to get really bad.

And speaking of the weather...it was a mixed bag the whole time. It rained every night we were there and off and on each day, not getting over 65 degrees the whole time. Someone had given Nancy a screen house and we threw it in the suburban as we were packing and I put it up. Of course there were 500 different poles and it took me an hour to get it constructed but it was pretty nice. I also had several other tarps and just for fun I strung those up all around the campsite and we called it "The Compound" and occasionally "The Erection." It was pretty nice though because the tarps combined with the huge old growth cedar trees we did not get wet at all.


On Wednesday we decided to go exploring in the car since it was raining. We drove down to the Diablo Dam and looked around and then into Newhalem. We went down towards the Newhalem Campground to check it out and ended up on a gravel road we thought would take us the back way into town. We drove past a sign that said "Rockshelter Trail" so we got out to check it out. Of course we did not grab the camera but it would never have been able to capture what we saw. The trail goes back to a very small rock shelter along Newhalem Creek and that was pretty cool. The native folk used it as a camping spot and a place to process and dry mountain goat meat. Half way to the rock shelter there is a fork in the trail and a sign that points to the creek so we decided to check that out. It was AMAZING!!!!! There are no words to adequately describe what I saw. The trail ends along the creek in a very narrow valley. The water rushes over huge boulders and there are ancient cedar trees and moss on everything. Tons of ferns. It is like the world is green with actual blue water in the little pools around the boulders. I just sat down on a rock and started crying. The thought that came into my head was that this is where the spirits of our dead must come to. A weird thought for me, but I could just picture Morgan soaring around this beautiful place, feeling her new wings and her freedom. It seemed to me an overlap between heaven and earth, a place where the spirits could almost touch us. I will never forget it.


Alas, the road does not go all the way to Newhalem so we turned around and headed into town for some extra groceries. The little store is cute with lots of kitch stuff and Nancy severely burned her hand on a cup of coffee. We discussed the McDonalds lawsuit over the scalding coffee and quoted Austin Powers where the security guard was "badly, badly burned." That was fun. Then we headed back to the campground and Nancy found lots of stuff in the cooler to cook on the coals from the fire.


While Nancy was being a domestic goddess pyromaniac, Walter and I went for a hike by ourselves on the Thunder Arm trail. It goes up a pretty big ridge between the arm of the lake and the main part. At the top we could see down into the lake. The trail goes from temperate rain forest to an alpine environment in about two miles. Last November a flood did major damage to both the north and south campgrounds along Colonial Creek and Walter and I walked through a mess of boulders and trees that had been washed down from the mountains. I actually timed how long it took us to walk the two miles back to our camping spot and it took 30 minutes and 41 seconds. That is pretty darn good.


As we were eating dinner it started to rain and continued raining all night and through the next morning. We were both feeling rather cold, tired, and dirty so I surpised Nancy with a drive into Winthrop and to the Pearrygin State Park for a hot shower (there are no showers in the National Park). The park is quite a dump and if you ever go there for a shower takes lots of quarters. The showers do not take dimes and you get about 4 minutes for fifty cents. I would like to publically thank the French people in the big fifth-wheel for giving me some change so that Nancy could finish her shower with hot water. And you, mister campground host, I refuse to believe that you did not have ONE STINKING QUARTER IN YOUR POCKET OR TRAILER TO TRADE FOR SOME LOUSY DIMES!!!!! STAB YOUR EYES!!!!!


After we were clean and warm we went into Winthrop and goofed around and had a wonderful dinner. Winthrop is on the east side of Washington Pass and it was nice and sunny there. After we were full of good food we drove the 50 some miles back to the campground and had a relaxing last evening. We actually ended up sleeping in the Suburban because it was warmer. The temperature when we got back to the campground was in the 40s. Someone gets cold very easy and gets grouchy so it was a good thing we had a big warm vehicle to stretch out in. The dogs were really digging it too.


We packed up on Friday morning, which was nice a sunny and beautiful...of course...and headed back east. We stopped at the Rainy Pass trailhead and took a little stroll to Rainy Lake. It is a paved level trail about a mile long that goes to a beautiful little lake at the base of the mountains. There are several waterfalls along the path and lots of stuff for curious poodles to sniff. The water is turquoise and the moutains surrounding it are impressive. Then we went back to through Winthrop for more good food and headed home. Though I did not get in as much hiking as I would have if Walter and I had gone alone, it was a really good trip. The weather sucked pretty much the whole time but it was good for us to get out alone and away from the things that plague our everyday lives. We talked a lot, ate a lot of stuff roasted on the fire...oh, the roasted garlic was beyond delicious, and we had a lot of laughs. And I can't wait to take my sister there the next time we plan an adventure together. She would totally dig it...and we will make sure to take a lot of quarters for the shower.

Pictures: our first road problem with the canoe; Walter and Lily at the campground; our little camping spot that was totally isolated from the other campers; a view from the middle of Thunder Arm; Nancy in the boat (note the amount of clothing...yes, it was that cold); looking towards the glaciers that feed into the lake; a narrow canyon along the road to Newhalem; looking down at the water in the lake through the trees; the mountains from Newhalem Campground; a view of the mountains above us during my hike with Walter; more mountains along the hike; the end of the trail and looking down at Diablo Lake; the trail; the showerhouse at the state park (remember, take lots of quarters); the "compound"; Nancy and Lily at Rainy Lake; Rainy Lake and the mountains above it; a glacier carved valley.