Day 13, North Cascades NP

The first thing we did after stopping by the Visitor Center and getting our park map stamped was to head over to see the Gorge Falls. While the side falls were running low and hidden by giant pine trees, the Gorge Falls were an awesome sight to see. However, in order to get a good view of the Falls you had to walk out on a see through bridge, which was a little intimidating and reminded me a lot of Royal Gorge from a couple years ago. It was really fun though, and I had a good time teasing Jessie by saying “Shaky…Shaky, shaky shaky!” as we walked across the bridge.

The only trail we did in this park was a two-mile loop to Rainy Lake. The trail was handicap accessible, with little elevation change so it was a nice, easy walk through the woods. Though there were tons of bugs flying in our face the whole way down, the view at the lake was well worth all the swatting.
The lake was made up of beautiful, clear blue water that was surrounded by snowy mountains. There were also several waterfalls that cascaded down the steep slopes and poured into the lake below. It was amazing to see, and though the trail was short we still felt secluded from the rest of the park as we looked out and walked through the water within this tranquil location. We could have stayed there for hours, but we still had a schedule to maintain, and we didn’t want to fall behind on our plans for the day.

Our last stop in the park was at Washington Peak, where we hiked half-mile trail along the cliff of the mountain. With nothing but a wooden rail between ourselves and a couple thousand foot drop off the side of the cliff, I didn’t want to stand too close to the edge. But, even standing back a few meters I was still able to enjoy the magnificent view of the up-close mountain ranges that towered into the clear blue sky. We took tons of pictures, and even got a couple of good 3D shots in there too, but I doubt that any of the pictures will do the mountains justice.

The only thing left on our agenda was a quick stop at Grand Coulee Dam. It’s always neat to see how dams are able to hold back so much water, especially when some of the spillways are being used. While it the overlook had a good view of the both the city and the dam we only stayed here long enough to get in a couple pictures before we were back on the road again.

We were also thinking about doing Steptoe Butte SP that day too, but seeing as it was way out of our route to our hotel, and that the day was nearing its end, we decided to call it a day and drive to our hotel.

The hotel we stayed at was nice, and it even had an old golden lab that was really cute and extremely friendly. We also got some delicious complimentary cookies and ice-cold milk. Though we didn’t do too much hiking, we did a lot of driving and were all tired by the time we arrived in our room. Luckily we were able to settle down and relax for the rest of the night and prepare ourselves for the next day, which would be another long day of driving as we continued to travel from park to park.