48 states and 46 national parks in 3 months!: North Cascades National Park

The final National Park in Washington!

We made it through Washington!.

First, let me just say, camping in bear country is a little bit intimidating. Bears are no laughing matter. We took precautions, but I still had a bit of nervous energy when we went to bed the night before we hit the park. We were in the National Forest just outside the park on a NF road, about 5 miles from the nearest town. Since we were in an area that could have bears we tried to take precautions (hanging our food away from the car, closing and locking up the doors, etc. but never having been in bear country before, I was a bit on edge.

Turns out no bears were out hunting or gathering in our area, so everything was fine. Friday morning! A beautiful sunny day! Which we didn't know until about 8:00 because we had blackout curtains up (which Paul's mom spent hours meticulously making!) and they worked amazingly well! We bounced out of the truck (well, kinda slithered, there isn't really room for jumping on the bed) retrieved our food, and were off!

The first sign we had that we were in the NP was the North Cascades National Park sign. Now, let me just say, we haven't visited every NP, and of the ones we have been to, we have definitely not seen all the entrance signs, but this park has a fantastic entrance sign. It really sets the tone of excitement for being in the NP! Almost enough awesomeness to visit just for the sign! Well... maybe if you live in Bellingham... but if the park were that close why wouldn't you visit the rest of the park!!!

Notice there's a glacier on top!

We stopped at the visitor's center to get some info on the bear situation and to see if they had any trail suggestions (and, how handy, they also had bathrooms! This becomes much dearer when you don't have one in your home) and decided to go to Thunder Knob and Ross Lake! There were several other trail options, but a couple of the good ones were actually outside the park, and that just wasn't working for us since the whole point of our trip is the parks!

Thunder Knob was a fairly short hike (3 ish miles one way), the view at the top was pretty good, although there were many trees so the view wasn't quite as panoramic as we were hoping, but still definitely worth it. Unfortunately we didn't have time to stop at Ross Lake on our way out, so we just put that on our "future" list!

View from the top of Thunder Knob.

Our feet got a bit dirty on the way up,,,

So we washed them on the way down.

Thank you E-station family for keeping Julie hydrated!!!

Personnel:
The rangers at the visitor's center were very helpful with the surrounding trails. The ranger we talked to had hiked most of the trails and had good suggestions on which ones would be best in the morning and afternoon if we chose to hike them. They were also able to point out where most of them were which was nice since the free map didn't have great labels. Definitely recommend stopping in as there is also a nice forest life exhibit in the visitor's center.

Climate/weather:
Another beautiful sunny day for hiking! The trail we took had good shade the whole way up, which was nice because the day was actually a bit warm for hiking. We were glad to get back to the AC in the car! Many of the trails here are more exposed, so if you are going hiking make sure you pick your timing with that in mind and bring water!

Facilities/signage:
The sign. Let me just say. Awesome. We came in on Hwy 20 from the West side. You really can't miss it. Take some pictures! The facilities were quite nice, the visitor's center was really well done, and the bathrooms were clean. There was also a campground at the trailhead that was quite full, except for the walk in campsites. It had water and bathrooms available which were clean and in good repair.

Hiking trail experience:
The hike was really fun; at the bottom of the trail it was a very green, mossy, fern-filled meander through the woods. As we got to higher elevation the woods became more sparse with less undergrowth, and then at the top there was a beautiful view of one of the lakes, although because of the trees surrounding the viewpoint we couldn't see as much of the surrounding mountains as we wanted. Still, worth the hike as the lake is a beautiful green which sets off the surrounding terrain to make for a very picturesque sight.

Driving experience:
The driving was definitely good, you are heading right through the heart of the park as you follow State Route 20. The road is curvy and hilly, but there are lots of mountain views and several beautiful lakes. We found that (in our 1 day data point) the traffic increased greatly later on in the day.

Camping options:
We had 2 camping situations that I will associate with this trip: the first one was on the west side of the park, where we found a NF road and parked in a pullout for the night. It wasn't anything special, but it was free, which is ideal.

The 2nd camping situation was quite nice. We stopped in the town of Davenport, which is about 30 minutes west of Spokane. There was a nice tree-lined lane right next to a park and swimming pool that had a little creek and some public restrooms that were open all night long. There is also a small covered area with picnic tables where we had breakfast. And it was also free!

Hammockability:
We didn't set up the hammock in this park, we considered it on our hike, but it was too hot, and we might have at Ross Lake, but we didn't make it there. However, there are lots of trees and plenty of good views, so I feel like some of the lake areas would be great for a hammock.

Scenery:
Lots of jagged mountains, deep valleys, long narrow green lakes, and trees. If you aren't into that kind of thing, probably head somewhere else... or you might still want to come here because it was awesome.

Nearby food:

There town of Marblemount on the west side is the closest food to the park. It is about 20 minutes from the visitor's center which is approximately in the center of the park. On the east side the closest food is Mazama, which is a little over an hour from the visitor's center.

We wanted to do some climbing in the park, but we didn't have time to get the gear together, and we wanted to be on our way. There are several good climbing places here, so we might come back and do that again later, along with some more hiking, kayaking, and exploring!

After leaving the NP we headed out to the Grand Coulee Dam! This is the largest electric power producing facility in the US (according to wikipedia) and it was something that was on the way, so we decided to stop and see it! The Crown Point Vista to the north of the dam gives a spectacular view of the size of the dam. While nothing compared to the size of the mountains we had been driving through, for a man made structure it is incredible. Definitely worth a quick stop if you are in the neighborhood! Also, in the evenings during the summer they have a laser light show at the dam! We didn't stay late enough to see it, but I think it would be fun to do sometime.