North Cascades & Mount Rainier National Parks

From the west entrance of Glacier NP, you're basically in the northwest corner of Montana. The thing about Montana is it's big - it still took 3+ hours to get out of the state.

The exit of Montana marked my first new state on this trip - Idaho. Although we were only in northern Idaho and only for about an hour, I can say it was beautiful country. Also, we learned from a bathroom stall that Northern Idahoans are generally illiterate - bathroom stalls don't lie.

Next was Washington. What comes to mind first when thinking about Washington state? Probably Seattle, or maybe it's the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The difference between Washington and the previous few states is there are people there! Washington is the 18th largest in terms of area and 13th in terms of population (60% of which live in the Seattle area). Washington also has three national parks.

North Cascades National Park
The first of these three is North Cascades. Commonly called The Alps of North America, this park sits in northern central Washington. On our drive to the park, we saw real cowboys!

North Cascades was beautiful, but it was a weird setup. The road that "traverses" the park actually never enters the park (notice in the photo album the park sign is not the real sign). In fact, it crosses through Ross Lake National Recreation Area in between the northern and southern portions of the park. After reading more about it, it is difficult to visit the park without planning for an extended stay. But what we could see looked beautiful!

Here are a few photos I was able to gather.

Mount Rainier National Park
After a night outside the park we made our way to I-5 so my two companions could see the Seattle skyline for the first time, although we did not make a stop here. This was my third time in the Seattle area and the third time it was chilly and overcast. Entering Mount Rainier NP marked the second time I did so and the second time it was cloudy and the second time some of the roads were closed.

I wondered, as I sat frustrated in the car, how people capture these wonderful photos I see in the picture books of Mount Rainier. I'm convinced they sit in one spot for three years waiting for a sunny day. The sky did open up at a few places and enabled us to capture a few good photos. Even with these photos, it's frustrating to come so far and strikeout twice in one day. We were anxious to get to the next park, which meant getting to the ocean.

Here's another abbreviated Washington album.

Next Post: Olympic National Park