We experienced déjà vu driving through eastern Washington on our way to North Cascades National Park. It reminded us a lot of North Dakota. There’s a similar abrupt change from farmland to rocky dry wilderness. We were initially worried that the free campsite we’d selected was in the middle of a giant wheat field. I’m talking wheat in all directions as far as you can see. Suddenly the wheat fields turned into rocky craggy formations. We found our camp in the bottom of a ravine that also held a mirror-like lake. The evening was so still that the lake perfectly reflected the surroundings.

North Cascades National Park

Arriving at North Cascades National Park was another case of déjà vu. Driving up the steep road through jagged, snowy peaks and coming across vibrant turquoise waters we felt like we were back in Glacier NP. I’m not the best navigator, but we did drive west this morning, right?

We didn’t know much about the park when we arrived. In fact, we’ve never heard anyone talk about North Cascades NP. We learned that it’s one of the least visited parks in the nation. We really don’t understand why. It’s only a 3 hour drive from Seattle and it’s like a mountain top paradise. Jewel-toned water runs from glacier peaked mountains. Oh yeah, and there aren’t many people so the surroundings are extremely peaceful (even in the height of travel season). Sorry Washington, I guess now your secret’s out.

North Cascades NP has more glaciers in it than Glacier NP. In fact it has more glaciers than any other park outside of Alaska. North Cascades is part of a trio of protected lands in the area. Lake Chelan and Ross Lake National Recreation areas are the other two.

As far as I can tell it doesn’t appear there are any paved roads in the official national park boundaries. There are a few dirt roads, but most of the park is accessed by trail. It’s truly a backpacker’s dream. Unfortunately, for us many of these trails start from dirt roads. The kind of dirt roads with warnings saying “rough road – not recommended for low-clearance vehicles”. Stan’s a pretty low-roller and we’ve had our fill of flat tires so we opted for day hikes instead.

Town of Newhalem

The hikes were lovely but one of the more unique experiences was a ranger evening walk. It started in the quaint company town of Newhalem. Population: 378. The first part of the program was a presentation about the history of the area. Pretty sure that Tom had laser pointer envy.

The rest of the program was an outdoor walk through the town and past one of the 3 dams on the Skagit River. The dams are owned by Seattle City Light and were built before the area was designated as a national park. They were the brain child of J.D. Ross who saw the the Skagit River as an opportunity to provide enough power for the entire city of Seattle. Of course this was back in 1920.

Ross was rather eccentric when it came to power and lighting. He built a garden where he hosted gatherings and tours. The gardens have a particularly unique feature—a series of Skagit River waterfalls run through them. Even more unique is that Ross installed lights throughout this section of the river so that the falls are illuminated.

The color of the lights changes so for a few minutes you can gaze at a red waterfall. Then it turns purple, green, blue, and yellow. It’s a bit odd to see dams in the middle of a National Park. Especially a park as wild as North Cascades. It’s just plain weird to see Vegas style lights illuminating waterfalls in the middle of the forest. It was a truly unique experience though and we appreciate that the park service shares not just the wilderness but the history of the parks with visitors.

Bear Wanted

Tom realized that we’d be near Snoqualmie and North Bend, WA (aka Twin Peaks filming locations) around the time of our wedding anniversary. The original 90’s Twin Peaks of course. We’ve yet to see the Showtime one and it’ll really have to pull out some stops to top the original, in our humble opinions.

Our accommodation plans were simple, or at least that’s what we thought (queue eerie foreshadowing music). We picked another free camp area along a forest road near North Bend. The first thing we noticed was the bear wanted, I mean warning sign stapled to a tree. It looked just like a bear mugshot.

Within 15 minutes of arriving, two police cars rolled into our campsite. Tom recently told me about a violent convict that was on the loose in the area. Possibly a survivalist. Likely hiding in the woods. Certainly these exact woods. My first thought was, Oh no, they’re going to tell us to be on the look-out for a home-made machete wielding, bow-drill carrying convict! I swear I stopped reading Stephen King in the woods, I swear.

Well the perp turned out to be hairier than an escaped survivalist convict (or at least I hope that’s true). The police wanted to be sure we were taking that bear warning sign seriously. The bear had torn through a tent just that morning. Apparently the tent owner had gone to bed with a box of Fruity Pebbles though. Midnight snack?

After setting up camp (but of course nothing scented), we took a little walk to a nearby creek. When we got back I noticed something new. The infamous bear had paid us a visit and left it’s calling card in the form of a giant pile of fresh scat. So the bear’s obviously not concerned with leaving scented items behind.
My response: “Oh no! The bear pooped in our campsite!”
Tom’s response: “Oh no! We camped in the bear’s toilet!”
I guess it’s a matter of perspective.

A Surprise Evening Visitor

Shortly after retiring to Stan that night, we heard some strange noises. They didn’t sound like a bear, but we’ve never had a bear van break-in so we don’t know exactly what that sounds like. We heard small clicking and tapping sounds. They started at the back of Stan and near our window. Then they moved to the front and even the top of Stan.

First we tried to be quiet. Then we tried to make noise. Then we shined our flashlights out the window. Nothing to be seen and the noise stopped for a bit, but soon started up again. We decided to go outside and see what it was. Armed with our bear spray, our own machete, and three lights we dramatically opened the van doors…And saw nothing but forest.

Later that night I was startled out of sleep to find Tom sitting up in bed in the dark. “Shhhh. There’s something in here!” he said. He turns on the light just in time to see a small brown mouse scamper across floor and under our bed. This time we got out of Stan much quicker!

We threw open all the doors. Turned on all the lights. And started the engine to scare out our new squatter. As far as we could tell it worked but we weren’t taking any chances. Moving campsites to somewhere closer to the main road (and hopefully less mouse infested) seemed like our best bet. We’d broken down camp completely that night so that we could make a quick getaway if needed (of course, who wouldn’t do that, right?). Down the dirt road at 3:15 am Stan went to a spot just off the main HWY for a few more hours of sleep.

Cherry Pie and a Damn Good Cup of Coffee

The next day fortunately was much less eventful and we were able to fulfill our nerdy Twin Peaks super fan dreams. We checked out the Great Northern Lodge (Salish lodge in real-life speak), Snoqualmie Falls (next to said lodge), Reinig bridge, and The Double R Diner (aka Twede’s cafe). Agent Dale Cooper was certainly on to something with the cherry pie. Also, the bottomless hand-cut fries may be what heart-attacks are made of, but they’re oh so worth it.

We learned a few things so far on this leg of the journey:

1. Sometimes the best places are the places you’ve never heard of before.
2. The tiniest towns tend to have the biggest surprises.
3. Apparently we’re more afraid of mice than bears.
4. If you see bottomless fries on a menu, order them.

What’s your favorite little-known vacation spot? Have you ever had to abandon camp?

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