North Cascades Travelog #15
Winthrop WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 5pm.

This afternoon is where we come up short because the hikes we wanted to do in North Cascades National Park are on fire. The past few days we were able to do other hikes instead... but those were hikes we were going to do anyway, in addition to (at least) two trails in the park. We ( Read more... )

North Cascades Travelog #14
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 12pm.

I didn't expect this one trail hike to stretch to 3 blogs especially because it's not even that long, but here we are. There's just been so much beauty to share.


( Read more... )

North Cascades Travelog #13
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 11:15am.

Have I mentioned I'm glad we bailed out on hiking Falls Creek Trail yesterday afternoon and came back this morning when we were well rested? Yeah, I've said that twice already. As we started up the trail this morning the hike was easy at first, to the first falls ( Read more... )

North Cascades Travelog #12
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 9:45am.This morning we got up early-ish- it's technically a weekday even though it's a holiday, so my standard alarm wakes me up at 6:45am- puttered around the hotel room for a bit, ate a light breakfast, pulled our packs together, and headed out for a morning hike. Our ( Read more... )

North Cascades Travelog #10
Near Winthrop, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 4pm.

We made pretty good time coming down the trail after visiting Cedar Creek Falls this afternoon. I was thinking the return hike might take until 3, but we were back to the car by 2:30. That gave me more confidence we might even manage three waterfall hikes today, not just two. ( Read more... )

North Cascades Travelog #9
Mazama, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 2pm.

On Sunday we made hiking the Cedar Creek Falls trail our main event for the day. The hike up the trail was about 2 miles of walking with 500-600' of elevation gain, leading to a lovely set of waterfalls.


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North Cascades Travelog #8
Mazama, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 1pm.

What do you do when the trails you wanted to hike are on fire? You find somewhere safer to hike! Fortunately we'd already made a list of several trails we wanted to hike in the area, so after crossing off the top few there were still 3-4 left. Tops on this list is the Cedar Creek Trail ( Read more... )

North Cascades Travelog #6
Winthrop, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 9am.I remarked in my previous blog that this trip to Eastern Washington and the North Cascades is revenge, revenge for things we were not able to do in years past because of car trouble or poor weather. Well, where once poor weather kept us from appreciating Palouse Falls more fully, this ( Read more... )

I drove a Chevy Malibu. Again. It was our rental car on our trip to Oregon two weeks ago. I say again because we also got a Malibu in New Orleans to take a jaunt through Mississippi. That trip we logged 375 miles on the car; this trip we logged over 700. With now 1,100 miles in recent model Chevy Malibus I feel more qualified to review them. (Note ( Read more... )

Whew. I am now done with blogging about the epic waterfalls hiking day we had a week ago Monday (July 3). Seven different falls, seven different trails, and it only took a week to catch up. Though I did say a week ago that it'd take me a week to finish. 😅 The falls were:

1. Susan Creek Falls
2. Fall Creek Falls
3. Toketee Falls (and carwash!)
4. Watson Falls
5. ( Read more... )