Gary and Dona's Trip to Port Townsend, Washington
July, 2012
Part 3 -- The North Cascades
Dona finished her class at the
Port Townsend School of Woodworking .
on Friday,
but we couldn't head out right away because our ferry reservation wasn't until about 7:00 p.m.
So we ambled around the waterfront
and enjoyed another ice cream cone.
Then we scooted onto the ferry and fought our way through Seattle / Bellingham rush-hour / summer weekend traffic
until we were on the highway headed up the Skagit River.
By the time we got there it was getting dark,
and since the whole point of going that route was to see something,
we searched for a campground.
There weren't many options;
some were up roads that were closed or washed out,
and for such a big area there just aren't very many; but we finally found one.
It was on the Skagit River, which was great.
But the river is in a narrow canyon,
which also contains a road and a railroad line.
A busy railroad line.
Which is a lot less than great.
Needless to say, we were disappointed in the lack of good campgrounds in the surrounding National Forest.
But it was worth it.
The road cuts through the
North Cascades National Park,
and it is spectacular.
The road runs along the Skagit River,
which was dammed in the early 20th century
to generate power for the Seattle area.
It's nice clean power,
but unfortunately it cuts off a lot of salmon habitat.
It would be great if they would tear the dams out and replace them
with a number of smaller units which don't choke the river,
or add some kind of fish passage.
Seattle City Light
has some nice pullouts and interpretive signs along the way,
and recreational access points for the reservoirs.
When I look at the reservoirs,
and then the river,
I can only imagine what it must have looked like before the dams.
It must have been awesome.
On one of their interpretive signs,
they try to weasel out of the fact that they have destroyed a significant salmon run by saying something like
"The force of the water through the canyon is so great that few fish can make it upstream."
Sure... depending on your definition of few.
Except those "few" fish happen to be the very best ones --
the biggest, strongest, fittest ones --
the ones you want to breed to make more super strong big salmon.
And never mind that only a few have to make it to produce a whole bunch.
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| Gorge Powerhouse on the Skagit River |
Skagit River |
Xxx Flower |
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| Skagit River |
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| Skagit River |
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| Gorge Dam on the Skagit River |
Gorge Dam on the Skagit River |
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| Gorge Creek, note Reservoir at the end |
Falls on Gorge Creek |
Falls on Gorge Creek |
Falls on Gorge Creek |
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| Looking South from Gorge Dam |
Looking South from Gorge Dam |
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| Dona, near Gorge Dam |
Gorge dam is in one heck of a gorge.
Wow!
Imagine what the river must have been like pouring through that narrow slot during spring flood.
And yes, salmon would have made it up just fine.
The water near the bottom doesn't flow as fast,
and there are boulders and outcroppings to hide behind where the water is essentially still.
So you spurt your way upstream,
the same way they do over a long cascade.
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| Gorge Reservoir |
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| Skagit River Mist |
From the Skagit River we continued on into the park,
then over the continental divide.
It was misting but the scenery was still great.
There's lots of climbing to be done up there...
and you can't really see the good stuff from the road.
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| North Cascades |
Diablo Dam |
North Cascades |
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| North Cascades |
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| North Cascades |
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We stopped at a rest area and cooked dinner,
the remains of a steak we had only eaten part of.
That plus watermelon and a nice view and we were in heaven!
Max got the scraps and he was pleased as punch as well!
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| Scrub Jay |
We drove down along the Methow River and through Twisp,
where we stopped for an ice cream cone.
What we really wanted was a smoothie,
but we couldn't find a smoothie place.
We continued on across the Okanogan country of northeastern Washington and into Idaho.
We crossed the Columbia River,
or what's left of it since it's now a big puddle backed up behind Grand Coulee Dam,
at Kettle Falls;
or at what used to be Kettle Falls, since it's now under water.
What a shame.
We should take those dams out and generate power using smaller run of the river generators
that don't create such huge reservoirs and drown out the riverbottoms.
We spent the night in a nice quiet state park.
The next morning, we drove over through Sandpoint and then back into Montana,
where we headed for the Ross Creek Cedar Grove (Next).
