North Cascades National Park / Washington

The stops of the last few days were merely to split the journey to Seattle into a few days. It would not have been possible to go straight from Yellowstone NP to Seattle. With this visit, we reach the northernmost point of our trip. From the southeasternmost point in El Paso to the northwesternmost point here.

By the way, I would like to refer again to the 'map'. Here you can follow our route very well ...

While we were in Coeur d’Alene and Omak just for a stopover, the stay in North Cascades National Park was planned. This national park is the fourth least visited national park in the USA. Only about 17,000 visitors are counted there annually. Perhaps it is because it is far away from all other attractions in the country.

(We had the impression that today was the day that inflated the visitor count for 2023 from the usual number. The NP was indeed crowded …)

But at least it has about 300 glaciers, which unfortunately cannot be seen because there is only one road that passes through the national park and therefore you cannot get close to the glaciers. The glaciers also feed Diablo Lake, which has the typical turquoise color of glacier lakes.

In addition, there is a great alpine landscape with snowfields.

A special highlight was offered before the actual national park: The town of Winthrop had transformed into a Western town and it was very authentic. Especially the gas station had the typical style ...

Arriving for the overnight stay in Everett, north of Seattle, we will continue tomorrow. Until then!