The North Cascades Highway
Friday, August 19th, 2011July 28th
We were rewarded with a perfect day for driving the North Cascades Highway. It was a crisp day with sunny blue skies. Our first stop was at a trout hatchery where we watched women clipping the fins of young trout to identify that they had come from the hatchery. We continued the road and our first views of the snow-capped peaks were near Newhalem and the North Cascades National Park Visitor Center where we saw an inspirational film about the park and about returning to wildness. We stopped for a hike up the Thunder Knob trail for some fantastic views of Diablo Lake which was created by one of three dams built in the area. The dams supply electricity for the Seattle area. We were awed by the jagged glacier carved peaks and the abundant waterfalls. Late in the afternoon, we stopped off for another small hike and ended up at a glacial lake with a small iceberg floating in it. A fisherman on the lake told us that he and his son watched bears feeding on berries on the banks while they were fishing. We finally stopped at a little rustic campground where we camped for the evening. The following morning, we drove the last bit of the North Cascades Highway to Winthrop, a mountain gateway town. We passed through early in the morning, while people were still enjoying their donuts and coffee, but the town gave off a fun, western vibe.
Posted from Custer State Park, South Dakota
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