North Cascades Camping

This past weekend, the fiance and I camped in the North Cascades National Park. While we had been in the park before, we had never ventured further up HWY 20 than the Goodell Creek campground. This weekend we drove through the mountains all the way to Twisp on HWY 20 and scoped out the sights-namely, the three dams on the skagit, the most rugged mountains we've ever seen, jaw-droppingly cold and gorgeous glacier run off, and some local wildlife.

Even though I grew up a couple of hours from the park, I wasn't aware of the dams, wildlife, or awesomely gargantuan mountains in the northwest corner of our state. Driving east on I-90 does not give you the same sights as HWY 20, and not all of the "Cascades" are created equal!

The Pickett Range

People were climbing Mt. Everest before they had

traversed the Picketts-how's that for rugged?

While we only saw deer, chipmunks, and birds on our visit the North Cascades are obviously an idyllic refuge for many other animals. While on a hike, the fiance and I spotted some bear scat (very large, intimidating bear scat at that) and we saw signs suggesting we keep an eye out for pika and elk.

Pika

I also recognized (for the first time) that mountain goats are endemic to our state. I know, a slight "durrr" moment on the Hannah front, but for every time I see them at zoos, I never realize they are roaming around a few hours away! Driving through the North Cascades, I finally put two-and-two together. You can't drive by the massive, rugged mountains along HWY 20 and not imagine mountain goats roaming around the jagged peaks.

Washingtonian mountain goats

While I am endlessly fascinated by wildlife, a lot of sight seeing involved the man made dams along the Skagit river. The three dams are called Gorge Dam, Diablo Dam, and Ross Dam. Together they provide 20% of Seattle's electricity. What the fiance and I found most impressive was that the dams were constructed as early as the 1920s. Considering the mountains and limited access around the dams-it was quite a feat!

Ross Dam

Newhalem has a visitor center with history on the dam projects and it was quite an eye-opener. Not only did I have NO CLUE there were dams on the Skagit, I had no clue what a big project the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project had been and is today. 

As for our camping portion of the trip, the fiance and I spent a night at the Goodell Creek campground but relocated to the Colonial Creek campground for our last two nights. Both are nice grounds but we especially enjoyed Colonial Creek and the programs hosted at the grounds by the rangers-who wouldn't like Sasquatch and glacier talks?!

While we embarked on a hike Sunday, we did not complete the trek (it was a bit out of my league) but we certainly shared a growth opportunity as a couple-let's just say it was a rough morning for the two of us. All in all, by the end of the weekend we could say that we had a good time and it was well worth the trip. 

In other news: The fiance and I visited the Tulalip Casino last week to redeem a few free coupon offers from the Aquasox game and had ourselves a fun little casino experience-buffet dinner and some wins at the slots! We then proceeded to spend our winnings at the outlets buying some clearance shirts :o) They sure got things figured out up there!

The cats were happy to have us home and even happier to get some kibble and tuna from Pops. 

I am still stripping ye olde sewing cabinet. Joy! I just keep telling myself that it will be worth it in the end!