Day 11

We spent the day today hiking in North Cascades National Park. We did four smaller hikes, rather than doing one big one, so that we could see different areas of the park. In all, we hiked about 7 miles. Two of the hikes were a little tougher, as the mountains here are VERY steep. Most of the trails are laid out with LOTS of switch-backs, in order to make the climbs more manageable.

The terrain here, to repeat, is just beautiful. We had a picture perfect day, weather-wise, and it was just awesome.

To be clear, I think the primary reason this park exists, is because of the dams that have been built here to provide power for the city of Seattle, WA. In fact, I'm sure that the only reason we have cellular service, is because our campground is right next to the little town that was created to house the employees of the Seattle City Light Company, the operator of the hydroelectric plants here.

There are several dams within the park, the most impressive of which is the Ross Dam, pictured below. One of the hikes we did today took us from the main road that traverses the park, down a very steep mountainside, ending at the top of the dam. The bad news, was that we then had to climb back up!!! Unfortunately, the spillways on the dam were closed ... based on the look of the spillways, I bet it would be pretty cool to see the water going down through them.

After our day of hiking, we went back to our campground to rest and relax. Josh kicked my butt in a game of Monopoly (he always seems to win the games we play that involve rolling dice). After that, I made a dutch oven lasagna ... it turned out pretty darn good!!!

Tomorrow morning, we leave here and head towards Seattle, WA and the Olympic Peninsula. It's not too long of a drive (about 4 hours), so the plan is to take our time getting out in the morning, and then spend some time having some fun at the campground when we get there.