We left North Cascades National Park area on Tuesday morning planning a slower drive toward Glacier National Park.  We drove back through the national park and continued on a highway to take us a longer route to Glacier.  We were being picky about which way we were going as we wanted to drive into Canada for a little while.

We reached Washington Pass on the eastern side of North Cascades and stopped at an overlook.  As it turned out, the overlook had a small trail with it.  I took the kids toward the overlook while Charlie went into the RV to make some lunch.  We were amazed by the views that we found at the overlook.  They were stunning!

After Washington Pass we were on the eastern, much drier side of the Cascades.  Gone were the many spruce, fir, and cedar trees.  In this area, many of the trees that we saw were actually fruit orchards – lots of apples and cherries.  My attempts at getting pictures of the fruit orchards while we were driving didn’t turn out so well, but it was amazing to see so many orchards.  We even saw an orchard that was entirely covered in a white netting – yes the netting was over the tops of the trees and enclosing the orchard down the sides also.  Charlie and I could only guess that this was to keep out certain insects, but we weren’t entirely sure.

We also stopped at a fun little town called Winthrop, Washington.  This town had been built to resemble a western town, so we really enjoyed walking around it to see what it had to offer.  AnaClaire found a pair of earrings she wanted.  We checked out a store that had a lot of western wear for sale as well as an ironworks store and a bookstore.  

And we finally made a stop for some homemade ice cream.  That was a treat!  The ice cream place had a great deck to sit outside and enjoy the cool air as well as stools made from old saddles!

Then it was on to Omak, Washington, in the northern part of the state for a sleepover in the WalMart parking lot.  We actually haven’t had a lot of luck finding WalMarts that will allow campers to park there overnight anymore.  I’ve had a couple of managers tell me what a shame that is as Sam Walton was a big fan of camping and wanted his stores to host campers.  However, from what I understand, it isn’t always up to WalMart.  Oftentimes the store buildings are owned by a company other than WalMart or there are city ordinances, etc.  It is disappointing as this has been a low cost way to do some traveling as well as we certainly do go into the store and spend plenty of money in there.

Anyway, we’re figuring it out as we go and having a great time!

Rebecca