Turquoise Water

Diablo Lake Vista Point

2019-09-18 (Wednesday)

Today we left our soggy overcast National Forest campground at about 10:30, and headed up an equally soggy, overcast Route 20. This was supposed to be the Cascades Scenic Highway, but we already knew we were getting cheated out of the fabulous scenery we’d been promised. All we could see were clouds drifting over the mountains around us, leading us to a discussion of the difference between fog and clouds. Luckily, they were CLOUDS (in my opinion), but they were certainly blocking what was undoubtedly high mountains around us. All we could see was deep green trees, with the road running between them as if they were a tunnel.

I sadly forgot our recent history in Wyoming (I think that’s where it was?) when we were going over a pass (I think near Grand Teton National Park? The details of this trip get so fuzzy!). We were going up and up and it was clearly a steep road, and as we handled a hairpin turn, I said to Joe, “We were SO DUMB!  We shouldn’t have hooked up the Jeep, we are going over the passes here!) So just as we did last time, we pulled over in the middle of the steep ascent, disconnected the Jeep, and kept going in two vehicles. And ironically, as before, we were almost near the top of the pass by then. Still, we drove in two vehicles for another 40 or more miles before we got back together.

Switchback to Washington Pass

I was leading in the Jeep, and the clouds seemed to be lifting slightly by the time we got to a pullout for Ross Lake. So I pulled over, with Joey behind me in Sam, and we got out. The lake was a beautiful dark green color, which I thought had to do with all the evergreen trees around it. The mountains in the background, while still cloudy, were a bit more visible. We read on the information panel that this part of the world was influential to Jack Kerouac— he manned a fire tower in those mountains for a season, and wrote about the mountains and their serenity in his books.

We continued on, and soon came to another pullout for Diablo Lake. I took this one too, and it had a large parking lot and overlook area. By this time, it was a bit after noon, so we agreed to have our lunch there after oohing and saying over the view. The water here was an incredible turquoise color, which the info panels said was due to the soil runoff being introduced to the water by glacial melting water. Whatever causes it, it was gorgeous.

Diablo Lake

We spent some time chatting with another couple while we looked at the lake—they were from Indiana, and were doing the same loop we were, but were a little bit ahead of us. So we talked about our vacations and previous trips, and whether it was worth it for them to backtrack to where we’d been this morning. (When I reported how misty and cloudy it was, they decided not to bother.) We also had our lunch, and then we decided that we were on the western side of the park a nd the divide, so it would be safe to connect the RV and Jeep again.

From there, we just kept driving through the rest of the park, and the small towns on the Cascade Loop that followed. We stopped at the park Visitor’s Center, and I was disappointed that they were out of pins. I haven’t mentioned, but I started a new collection on this trip— those little National Park pins that all the parks sell. I have been putting them on my sun hat (which is itself a souvenir from Acadia National Park.) I was looking forward to adding a North Cascades NP pin, because this park is very under-visited, but they were out of them. I will have to order one on line, I guess.

Otherwise, I can’t remember stopping at anything except the gas station and a small organic farm stand recommended by my tour guide. We were following the Skagit River, and the scenery was very lovely, especially all the water, the streets running into the river and the river itself. Pretty soon, though, the afternoon was getting late. We’d already decided not to stay in the National Park campground, so we weren’t sure WHERE we’d end up. Ironically, we were heading for a KOA as sort of a last resort, but we missed the turn—and ended up about 15 miles further along, at Bay View State Park, which is RIGHT on the Puget Sound! There is a path to the beach from our campground and I saw the sun setting over the water, through the trees which separated us from the beach. Unfortunately I couldn’t go closer, because we arrived right before sundown, and were still unhooking. But we will check it out tomorrow.

What is also good about this campground (and the general neighborhood since we left the park) is that we finally have WiFi and phone connections again. For two days in the national forest and then the national park, we had nada in the way of connectivity. Tonight I was able to do some “work”— i.e. make a ferry reservation for us tomorrow, and a campground reservation. Unfortunately, camping in Olympic National Park doesn’t look good, because half of the campgrounds don’t take RVs at all, and the others have sites which are mostly too short. Rather than be stuck, since it is a weekend, we made a reservation at a KOA (which as i mentioned, isn’t really our favorite because of the lack of ambience... although they do have good facilities like HOT showers) for 3 nights, so we can enjoy our weekend without worry. Tomorrow we’ll be heading to the ferry; our reservation is at 2:45, and we are only 1 hour drive away according to Google, so hopefully it will be a stress-free drive.

Several glaciers are visible on this mountain.