Scablands
Ross Lake in North Cascades NP
After we left Idaho, we drove to Grand Coulee Dam, WA. Grand Coulee Dam is one of the largest concrete structures in the world and was built in the 1930's on the Columbia River. It has a hydroelectric plant and provides irrigation for 500,000 acres of eastern Washington land. The area here is a desert. We couldn't believe it either. It looks like Big Bend. But they irrigate and grow all kinds of fruits and grapes for wine here. We saw miles and miles of apples, pears, plums, etc. I really like the Gala apples that they produce here. The small towns had produce plants where they are packaged for market. At night, we went over to the dam where they show a laser light show off the dam wall. It was very impressive and patriotic.
The next morning, we drove through the scab lands of Washington. This a large valley that was left when glaciers melted and moved through as rushing torrents leaving huge layers of rocks in random deposits and cutting away the land. It is banded on each side by rock cliffs. We loved it as we are really into rocks. We always think this is more beautiful than wooded mountain areas. Then we headed to WA 20, a national scenic road that follows the Skagit River through North Cascades NP. As this is a remote region and the road was not built until the 1970's and is closed in winter, we chose to spend the night in the national park campground. We had other people tell us how they like to dry camp in remote regions, so we thought we would give it a try. I had planned 2 nights here, but I finally decided 1 night would be enough to see what we wanted to see. That was a great decision! The campground was solid, thick woods. We could not fit in the site that they had reserved for us. It was supposed to be 55 ft long and we are 40 ft. Should fit, right? Well, the site was curved in an arc and motorhomes don't curve. So we got in the Jeep to drive around and see if we could fit in any site since all the pull thrus seemed to curve like that. We finally found one if we could just get by the trees. So Fred attempted it, and I got out on the ground with my walkie talkie trying to direct him. He was just about to make it when the ranger drives up to tell him that he might fit better on the other side of the campground. Well, he was almost in this one so he keep on trying to fit between the trees. When we got it all situated and leveled with the jacks, we realized that it was a double site for two campers and we were parked right in the middle of the space and could not possibly fit on only one side, so we decided if they wanted us to pay for both sites, we would. We were exhausted and needed a happy hour.
For those of you who don't camp, dry camping is when there is no water, electric, or sewer hookups for you to plug into. We have some lights that work off of battery. We have water in our tank and holding tanks for the used water. We can run the hot water heater and stove off propane. It was hot, but you can't use air conditioning so we opened the tiny windows in the bedroom--not much breeze from them. No TV so we went to the visitors center to see exhibits, took a walk by the river, sat out until dusk (until the huge mosquitoes came), and then read until about 9:00. It gets dark early in these woods. Then we went to bed--a little hard to fall asleep for me because I can't stand to be hot. Sometime in the night, we woke up because it was freezing and we thought it was raining-- actually it was the rushing river. So we got the windows shut and snuggled down under the blanket for a few more hours. In the morning, Fred just had to crank the generator to make coffee even though he wasn't supposed to use it. We both agreed NO MORE DRY CAMPING FOR US UNLESS IT IS AN EMERGENCY!
The North Cascade NP was absolutely beautiful! The mountains still had some snow on them and the lakes were turquoise. The Skagit River had a swinging bridge across it and some trails in the woods with ferns and mosses covering the trees just like a rain forest.
After our one and only attempt at dry camping, we drove to the Skagit Valley, north of Seattle to stay in LaConner, WA. where we had full hookups and satellite TV. How wonderful! LaConner is a small fishing village on one of the many waterways in WA that lead to the ocean which is still 60-80 miles away. There were mountainous islands everywhere. The San Juan Islands were offshore here and Washington State Ferries have service to all of them. We went to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for a day trip. The ferry ride took an hour and we had lunch and shopped and tasted wine at the winery before returning to LaConner. ( The guy who owned the winery is from Mississippi--he asked about my accent--everybody always does. That East Texas drawl is hard to get rid of.) Another day we drove the scenic drive onto Whidbey Island where we stopped at Deception Pass--absolutely beautiful-and on to Anacortes where we drove through Washington Park, walked the beach cliffs, and watched a sea lion swimming. Another day trip was up north on scenic Hwy 11 known as Chuckanut Drive, a cliff hanging drive that had beautiful views of the bay and rocks below in the water. We stopped at Taylor Oyster Farm to see how they grow and harvest the Olympic oysters. Then we had lunch at Edison, a small historic bar from the 20's. Believe or not, they had a gourmet chef and the food was delicious. We had some of the local oysters grilled. Then I had fish tacos with some of the best corn salsa, and Fred had a cheeseburger with some of the local beer. He is in to trying beers from the places that we visit. So far in Washington, we have found Indian casinos everywhere. There were two in this area. We are always sure to leave the Indians some of our money.
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