We woke up at the Walmart parking lot of Mt Vernon this morning. Little did we know, Josh and Jessa have been staying at the campground right next door ever since we parted ways 3 days ago.We have been waiting for the green light to be able to drive across the North Cascades mountains as a recent landslide had taken the only road through there out of commission.
As of yesterday, the road is clear and we will be heading across towards our big get together tomorrow on the other side of the North Cascades. Rather than driving together, Josh and Jessa are staying for a couple more hours to finish up some chores so we will hope to see them on the other side.
The drive through North Cascades is a long but steady climb. Nothing like going over the Rockies in Colorado but it will give your vehicle a little workout. We don’t really have time to stay overnight here but we will stop and do some sightseeing and let the girls earn another Junior Ranger badge.
This little guy is pretty comfortable with humans and the girls got pretty close right outside the visitor center.
One more badge under their belts. I mean, around their heads.
A fair portion of the drive on highway 20 goes right along the Skagit river. This time of year there is still a decent amount of water flowing through it with as much snow fall as they get. With hundreds of glaciers in the area, there is always water here.
Right off the side of the road we stop to take a photo of one of many waterfalls that we came across.
This is Diablo Lake. The amazing turquoise color of the water is a result of the glacier grinding rocks to form a fine powder that drifts along into the lake.
Diablo Lake is also one of many dams that provides hydro-electric energy to the greater Seattle area.
This lake is beyond words. We have never seen lakes with glacial water and this is getting us excited for things to come in the next couple of weeks through Canada.
This kids are pretty thrilled too. But I don’t think it’s about the glacial water.
Finally, we see another airstream winding its way up the road from around the lake.
We are reunited once again. This time we will be caravanning for the next few weeks through Canada.
With the sun setting shortly, we are trying to get some more stops in the North Cascades before setting up for the night in Omak, Washington.
This is the part of the road that was closed recently due to landslides on the east end of the park. We are very fortunate that it cleared just in time as we would have had several hundred more miles to drive if we needed to go around.
Our last scenic stop before losing sunlight: Snagtooth Ridge.
We made our way to Omak, Washington which means we are only about an hour from our friends Brian and Leigh’s property near Tonasket. We will head over in the morning and officially join our caravan for Banff.
over and out,
dan
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