The Cascades

We have been poking around several towns and areas of the Northern Cascades of Washington.  We tried to go to Mount Rainier, but the access road was closed.

    After going over the crest of the cascades we found ourselves in the Wenatchee Valley, which is on the eastern side of the mountains.  This means that it isn't your typical Pacific Northwet climate.  We found a beautiful valley filled with fruit orchards that just happened to be in bloom right now.

We went to the town  of Leavenworth, which strangely enough is a Bavarian themed village right at the base of the mountains.  It seemed like an adventure sports mecca, most cars were driving through town with either bikes, skis, or kayaks on the roof.  The streets were filled yodelling coming from the town sponsored speakers and there were people in traditional dirndl in the streets.  It was a bit over the top and very obviously a tourist trap.  However, the mountains outside of town were amazing.  We went for a run in a wilderness area above town and ran into the snowline after a few miles.  After our run, while driving to our camping spot, we happened upon a beautiful valley in the mountains that had a town by the name of Plain.

It rained the next day and we drove up and over Stevens Pass.  I am sure we missed a lot of good scenery, but all we could see was rain drops, clouds, and fog.

We actually had a beautiful day yesterday as we checked out the area on the wet(west) side of state highway 20.  We went through Marblemount and Darrington.  Darrington looked like the ideal place for a town, but this one seemed pretty hard up at this time.  A lumber mill seemed to be the main employer and looking at the log yard we were both surprised that there are any trees left in Washington.

 

The mountains were glorious, especially since we could see them.  

 

It is such a nice contrast, that below treeline you can be in a very moist and mossy environment, and then above treeline there is such a stark contrast.

We had our most scenic campsite yet last night.  Right along the beginnings of the Cascade River.  We pulled up to find such a great view.  Colin made a fire right on the bank of the river and we watched the mountains change color with the sunset