Our drive to North Cascades National Park from Seattle was short.  Perfect!  We settled the RV in the campground and drove into the national park.  It was a beautiful drive; we were all exclaiming about the blue-green color of the river that we were driving beside.  Alex couldn’t wait to stop and touch it.

We finally did make it to an overlook in the park, but we were way to high above the river to do any touching.  The visitor center film gave us a nice overview of some of the wildlife in the park, the glaciers, and some of the history of the Native American people from that area. 

As we kept driving through the park, we saw snow-capped mountains, rivers, lakes, and lots of fir trees.  It was serenely beautiful and not at all busy.  We eventually made it to a small boardwalk trail that we wanted to do. 

As we walked it, we discovered that it led to another trail that we could take to a waterfall, so we opted for that.  This trail started going uphill a good bit and was getting very rocky.  Charlie, the boys, AnaClaire, and Amelia were quite a ways ahead of Alex, Annette, and I.  When we came across a couple hiking back from the waterfall, we stopped to ask them about the conditions of the remainder of the hike as there were no details given at the beginning of the trail.  When they explained that there was a good bit of steep grade and a lot of switchbacks, the girls and I began to rethink whether we needed to continue with the hike.

We walked a bit farther continuing to debate when we found Amelia and AnaClaire walking toward us.  Charlie had sent them back because the trail conditions weren’t good at all.  The three males of the family managed to finish the hike to the waterfall, which they said was worth it, while all of the girls and I turned around.  It wasn’t a trail that we wanted to tax Alex on too much – not to mention, we hadn’t dressed for a more intense hike; I was in sandals and not everyone had brought water (the initial hike we were going to do was short and easy).

I’m told the waterfall was stunning!  We finished driving through the rest of the park and saw several waterfalls just from the road.  We pulled over to admire multiple lakes that have been created by dams in North Cascades for the purpose of providing electricity to as far away as the Seattle area.

North Cascades is a gorgeous and under-appreciated park.  It evidently has more glaciers than any other national park in the United States.  We thoroughly enjoyed visiting this park and hope to make it back one day.  Hopefully next time we’ll bring some kayaks or paddle boards as this looked like an amazing place to explore by water.

Rebecca