Marblemount, WA / North Cascades National Park

We stayed four nights at Skagit River RV, which was near North Cascades National Park. We arrived at the campground a little after 5pm and there was no one at the office. We were about to go try to find our site on our own when the owner came up beside Randy’s window and gave us directions. Well, as we were pulling up to our site, we noticed she had told us the wrong direction, so the hookups were on the wrong side. The kind neighbor on one side noticed at the same time and suggested we loop around and come in the opposite direction. Meanwhile a large family who were neighbors on the other side were moving their camping chairs and toys out of our site and onto their own. We pulled in correctly and got all set up, including turning on both A/Cs to cool off the 90 degree RV; but within about 10 minutes our electricity went off. Oh shoot — that reminded me that we were on a 30 amp breaker, so I should have only turned on one of the A/C. I cut one off and expected our surge protector to do its thing and restore power, but it never did. We noticed our kind neighbor checking his circuit breaker, too, but the neighbors on the other side still had electricity. Hmm.

We had to go get a campground person who tried to figure out what had happened. He eventually noticed the neighbor’s dog bone (short cord that take power from a 50 amp cord to a 30 amp plug) had burn marks on it. Yikes! We’re still not exactly sure what caused the issue and why one campsite’s plug messed up two different sites, but he ended up calling a professional electrician who could not come immediately. They had another site that was a backend between some trees that he offered us (The campground guy blamed our neighbor for causing the problem since his cord was burned, so he didn’t make the same offer to him.) Since it was cooling off quickly, we decided to stay put for the night to see if it got fixed the next day. We weren’t ready to pack everything back up, hook up, move, and unhook and unpack again. I still cooked Spaghetti for dinner, using the propane stove, and we sat at the picnic table to eat. Our kind neighbor came over to chat with us and we learned his name was David and he was from Israel. He and his wife come to the US once a year for a few months and tour different parts of the country. He was very interesting to talk to and before he turned in for the night, we exchanged contact info. So, now we have an invitation to visit him in Israel and he will be our tour guide, ha. Maybe one day! Randy and I played a few rounds of R-A-C-K-O before getting chilly outside and turning in. Our batteries had no issues providing us with enough power for lights and heat overnight. And by the time we checked the battery level the next morning, the solar panel had charged them back to 100%.

DAY 1

I had initially thought we’d take a break on the first day, but since we didn’t have electricity, we decided to go sight seeing and hope they fixed it while we were gone. We drove East on Hwy 20, seeing what we could see. At our first stop, we walked the short Gorge Creek Falls Trail.

Then we stopped at the Diablo Lake Vista Point. We never got tired of seeing the pretty aqua colored water! After that, we drove another 30 minutes to the Washington Pass Overlook and walked the short, slightly steep trail for some amazing scenic views. From the overlook, we decided to start heading back west and took a short detour to drive across the Diablo Dam.

Before calling it a day, we stopped in Skagit to hike the easy Trail of the Cedars. The suspension bridge at the trailhead was cool. Also, there was an old hydroelectric building, Newhalem Powerhouse, that was interesting to peek into. After the hike, we popped into a little general store for a smoothie, then watched the park video at the nearby visitor center, then went back to the RV. Unfortunately, the power was still out, so we had to move to another site for the next few nights. At least another one had opened up that was easier to back into, so it was fine.

DAY 2

I really wanted a day off from hiking, so Randy hiked the 4.6 mile Blue Lake Trail without me. He saw our first mountain goat of this trip, too. Super pretty, but I don’t regret my decision to stay at the RV to reenergize my introverted self.

There were lots of waterfalls beside the road as we drove along the North Cascades Scenic Highway. Randy stopped at most of them to snap a photo.

North Cascades National Park probably ranks lower than several of the others we’ve been to, but it is really pretty. I would have probably been more impressed if we had not been to Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Crater Lake, which had many similar features. And I may have been too tired to appreciate it as much. Hopefully with this day of rest, I’ll be good to go for a few more weeks now!!!