Six Weeks/14 Parks
2008
We don’t care what gas costs!
The Gorge Lake Overlook
The Diablo Lake Overlook
The Skagit River Trail
NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK
The weather turned beautiful today. No clouds, lovely and warm. We talked about doing one of the many high elevation hikes in the park, but everyone was kind of tired so we decided to take a short ride to some of the scenic overlooks close by. Riding down WA 20, we stopped at the Gorge Lake Overlook. There are three hydroelectric dams on the Skagit River, supplying electricity to Seattle and creating three lakes, Gorge, Diablo and Ross, the largest. Gorge lake is the first going east from Newhalem. There is a short path along which you can see the dam and down into the gorge where the lake is.
While walking on the path, Merry, Ciaran and Sean surprised a ptarmigan. Got some great shots.
7/24/08
Further down, WA 20 goes down to cross Colonial Creek as it joins Diablo Lake, then rises quickly up to the Diablo Pass over the mountain. We stopped and had lunch here surrounded by four different glaciers.
Later in the afternoon, we hiked the River Trail that was close to our campground. Here the Skagit is downriver of the dams, and rushes along with a strong current. It is also very cold! The green color comes from sediment ground up and gathered by the glaciers as they move down the mountain and melt to feed the river.
Along the southern shore, the river runs low in the summer, revealing the rocks that are the bottom of the river during the spring when the water runs deeper. Much throwing and skipping of these rocks by the water.
In the woods, the moss covers every thing. Not quite the same as Olympic, but very similar. There’s not as much rain here, and instead of sequoias, the trees are predominantly red cedars. But very beautiful still.
