Cascade Loop into the North Cascades National Park

We have forecast of rain every day we will be camping in Twisp, so yesterday we decided to drive the Cascade Loop over the Washington Pass and go to the small town of Newhalem, a company town that was built in 1920s when the dams of Gorge, Diablo and Ross Lakes were being built.  Newhalem is also where the Visitors Center is located.

Gloomy, overcast, starting up to the Washington Pass area

Liberty Bell Mountain above at Washington Pass

At every turn, more glacier capped mountains

From Twisp, our drive would take over an hour to get to the Washington Pass, then another 35 minutes to the Visitors Center.  Up and up we climbed, passing waterfall after waterfall just cascading down right at roadside.  Rain sprinkling, then sun peaked out, then rain.  And chilly.  When we crossed the pass it was 50 but we started out from the campground at 62, not much difference until you stood in the high winds and got chilled to the bone.

Twist to Winthrop, to Pass and to Newhalem; will eventually camp
in Burlington on end of Highway 20 in 3 weeks

Was very disappointed with the Visitors Center, the displays were very jumbled, hard to read.  The movie - we were expecting to learn about the geology of the park, history of inhabitants, the normal you learn about at a park.  Zilch.  5 minutes of a college student's reflections of hiking in the park.  And was narrated by the student who spoke very fast that you could not understand most of what he was saying.  Only redeeming factor was the young park ranger who went over the park's trail system with us, giving us recommendations of things to see.

Gorge Falls

On our way back we stopped at a couple places, one of them the Gorge Waterfall by the Gorge Dam.  Impressive.  Then on to Diablo Lake, an aqua-marine colored lake from the runoff of glaciers, continued back eastbound on the Cascade Loop, stopping at another unnamed waterfall, over the pass and back to the RV.  We had very overcast skies, did rain on us while at Diablo, but in order to see this area we will have to buck it up and live with the rain.  The western side of the Cascades gets over 200 inches of rain a year, where as the eastern side (the side we are on) less than 10.  Called a rain shadow.  You can see the difference in the lushness of the forest west side, very arid by us.

Raining out, can you imagine how much more aqua Diablo Lake
would be in sunshine?

Barge going to Diablo Dam

I guess this is how you get cement to the dam?

It's pretty!

Boat camping, notice brown box by blue tarp?  Food locker - bear prevention

Now we study the information, plan a couple of hikes even though we will probably be in rain.  Cascades has over 300 glaciers so the runoff and waterfalls will be there for all summer.  I do want to walk along the Pacific Crest Trail (trail from Mexico/California border to Canada) and that is near the Washington Pass/Liberty Bell Mountain area.

Coming out from Washington Pass, going eastbound on Rte 20

Looking down valley at Pass, looking eastbound

Scars (brown streaks) are from avalanches

We learned that Route 20 (Cascades Loop) was just opened up, free of repairs and construction just last week.  Timing is everything.  We also learned that most of the 300 glaciers are in the northern part of the park, inaccessible by car, but in a couple of weeks we will be heading to the Mt. Baker area, also in the North Cascades National Park, where there are many more hiking trails and alpine lakes.  Lets hope the weather is better when Donna is visiting during that time.