Our family reunion ended on Friday. John had on his bucket list a drive through the Cascades. We headed north toward Seattle, and lost precious time driving around that city. Traffic was pretty much at a standstill; what would have taken us about 3 hours took 5 hours to reach the Cascade scenic highway 70. I must say what kept my sanity was reading the bumper stickers on the car in front of me: "I brake for little libraries" ( I have done that)," childhood is not a race but a journey", "a life outdoors is a life well spent", "make art not trash", "relish today and ketchup tomorrow". Hmm, I would have liked to have met the driver of that car- my kind of person!
What we saw of the North Cascades Park was beautiful...but forest fires were in the area and after about 70 miles in there were warning signs that the road was blocked off .
John kept driving, determined to see as much as he could until the very point where we had to turn around. When we did turn back it seemed that we saw a bit more interesting scenery than we we came in. For anyone not familiar with the Cascades, it is an alpine- like wilderness area. It has ancient forests, glaciers and pristine mountain lakes. Tourists coming to this area are usually hikers and backpackers. It would have been nice to have completed our drive through the park, but that was not possible. We did however, see a small part of it, and I counted about four cascading waterfalls down the mountain sides on our way out. We made one stop, to view Gorge Creek, before heading out and finding another highway to continue our trek through Washington.
So our aborted trip through the Cascades park took us about 200 miles out of our way. It was late before we started looking for a motel. We were driving through some forested area with little roadside amenities offered when I saw a sign which said "Eatery". As we stopped in front of it we noticed that it was closing for the day (we had not stopped for supper). Then I noticed a sign that indicated cabins were available. We signed up for a cabin costing higher than what we usually pay, but it was a bed! We then inquired about supper and were told that there was a bar below the motel office where we could get food. The bar keeper informed us that he only cooked what he could put in his fry basket. We had chicken nuggets and beer for our repast at 9:30 PM. What a day, but still all good. The cabin was comfortable, and the motel/bar/drive in complex had a cafe where we had a good breakfast. We also discovered that the business had a winery on the grounds- so if you are ever on the North Cascades Highway, look for the Glacial Peak Resort and Winery.
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| Our sweet cabin in the woods |
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