When you have One Day to explore the North Cascades

When I look back at my trip to North Cascades National Park in Washington, my mind pulls out cards of a drive through several small meadows of yellow wildflowers. In the background are lofty forested mountains that rise steeply up; quite different from the mountain range closer to home, which has a series of foothills at the bottom. Despite that, the drive up is smooth, through gently curving roads lined with tall trees. The park’s sylvan panoramas and stunningly colored lakes and rivers are other indelible images I brought back.

North Cascades: The American Alps

Our day trip had started in Seattle, and I vividly remember driving a few miles out of the city and witnessing the beauty of a chain of glacier-topped mountains marking the horizon.  I remember passing a bridge over the Skagit River looking green and full. I remember we kept seeing parts of that river at several different points during our drive up the mountains. And I will always remember the quietness of the area, the darkness in the wooded areas we hiked through, and the pure beauty of this verdant national park in the Evergreen State.

It was the first week of June. The roads were all already open (I guess it wasn’t a very snowy winter), and there weren’t a lot of visitors up there, either. There was no stopping at the west entrance because they do not collect an entrance fee here, so we made a stop at the Marblemount Visitor Centre to pick up a map, and talk to park officials.

A second person I spoke to, gave me a ‘Day Hike Sampler,’ a list of trails off State Route 20. It had all the information one needed — from the length of the trails to the elevation gain. After cementing our plans for the day, we got onto the Sterling Munro Boardwalk, which starts at the back door of the visitor center. This short trail through a wooded area transported us into a lush world: of a fern-and-moss-covered forest floor, of tree trunks that seemed to take inspiration from their moist and mossy surroundings, and branches that sheltered them all from the light and heat of the sun. A couple of minutes later, the boardwalk seemed to suddenly come to an end at a vista point that drew our attention to the saw-tooth peaks of the Picket Range.

After spending a few minutes there, we retraced our steps and got onto North Cascades Highway (Hwy 20) again. We passed Newhalem and made our next stop at — what I can’t help saying — my favorite area, here. When I’d asked the kind lady at the visitor center about the Gorge Creek Falls Trail, she had casually said the trail was near the bridge, from where we could also take in a good view. Looking back, I’m quite glad she didn’t overstate the view from there.

Gorge Creek Falls

I walked onto a metal bridge and found that it shook every time a car drove by. But that wasn’t what gave me the chills. Nor was it the fact that solid ground was several tens of feet below my feet. I got goosebumps from witnessing a lively little creek skip over rocks big and small, and become one with the blue-green waters of a swollen Skagit River.

I’d taken a few pictures of the waterfall on the other side of the bridge, too, but as I walked back, it felt wrong not to go to the other side of the bridge for a better view of the fall. So when I got back to the corner of the parking lot, I carefully crossed the North Cascades Highway and walked to the north side of the bridge, and it was one of the best decisions I made that day, for there was not just that big drop I saw from the other side. There were several smaller tiers and segments of the 242-foot Gorge Creek Falls as it made its way under the bridge.

Another good thing I did that day was not skipping the Gorge Creek Falls Trail. The trail took us up the hill and through trees to precious views of a tranquil-looking Skagit River basking in the soft spring sunlight and a pretty-still Gorge Lake. At one of the vista points, we decided to go beyond the paved trail, and ended walking into a dreamy wood that reminded me of my hikes through coast redwoods and even the wilderness of a rainforest-like coastal trail we had done on Trinidad Head in Northern California. The trees were tall. The woods were dark. The trails were narrow and uneven. The trail-sides looked wild with fern-like plants and berries. The air was cool and crisp. The forest tone was music to my ears. And I fell in love with this unpaved part of the trail that loops back to the Gorge Creek Falls parking area.

I would highly recommend this trail, particularly the latter part of it, to those who’d like to get a quick feel of the wilderness of North Cascade National Park.

The Diablo Lake – A Jewel of the North Cascades

This, I hear, is the most popular spot in this national park in Washington, and often the first picture that will come up when you look up this national park in the Pacifc Northwest. North Cascades’ Diablo Lake is celebrated most for its color. This turquoise lake, up at an elevation of 1600 ft. is glacier-fed and gets its color from glacial silt. And the lake wears its color best in spring when glaciers begin to melt and their grains flow into the lake, and then go on to reflect the greens and blues of the light that falls on it.

A forest walk along Happy Creek

After a lunch by the lake, we drove further into the park to Happy Creek Trailhead and took another boardwalk, this one, was another easy walk along a gurgling Happy Creek. All through this short hike, we listened to the natural music of the creek, made a little stop by the bench midway and let the lollipop trail take us back to the small parking lot.

After this nature walk, we got back on Hwy 20 one more time and drove back down the same way we had come. Once out of the park, however, we took the Darrington route to get to Seattle, which was again another thing done right. The Darrington-Oso-Arlington route was also a scenic drive, this one through lighter-green-leafy-landscapes, with a few sleepy towns along the way.

Closing note:
North Cascades National Park may not have many famous sights like those of the other US national parks, but if you’d like to spend a day in the lap of nature and enjoy a seemingly untouched area, do plan to go see this park northeast of Seattle. It’s therapeutic!

More:
US National Parks
From Washington State
The Pacific Northwest

Coming soon: Top 5 Things to do in Cascades National Park

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