north cascades part ii

I loved every part of North Cascades National Park. It is one of those rare places where reality is better than any of the photos you’ve ever seen of the place online. My sister and I had spent the whole day hiking in this amazing landscape, driving down the main road of the National Park, stopping for an hour or two hike, getting back in the car, stopping at viewpoints and just taking it all in. Before we knew it, we were at the furthest point in the park we could reach. Back at our starting point of my bucket list location Diablo Dam. 

We got out at Diablo Dam and I breathed in deeply through the harsh wind whipping my hair around knowing that I won’t be back here again for a very, very long time. We turned the car around and headed back to our wonderful accommodation in the middle of the mountains with the deer.

Luckily for us, the days in Washington are extremely long throughout the summer and when we got home we were welcomed by my favourite sunset of the whole trip. We quickly got changed out of our hiking clothes and went running in the long grass to take pictures and film our last day in North Cascades. It was a magical afternoon spent giggling and tripping over grass, running and just marvelling at the sights surrounding us.

As usual, we had an early wake up call the next morning. We packed the car, said goodbye to the snow capped mountains and made our way to the town of Winthrop to fill up petrol and buy some snacks. We ended up going for a little walk around Winthrop - I absolutely LOVED this town - it’s everything you’d expect to see in a movie. Cute wooden shop fronts with lovely hand painted signs, it was gorgeous. We had some ice cream and headed off on our way.

Next stop: Mt Rainier National Park.

all photos edited with my NEW Washington Lightroom Preset

north cascades part i

After a gloomy and cold welcome to Washington, we awoke to a sunny first day in North Cascades National Park. Since George and I were staying in Winthrop, we had made up a plan on what to see in the park where we start from the end which was closest to us and made our way back to the entrance. 

We set off and quickly arrived at the first carpark where we could hear the sounds of a woodpecker working away in the forest somewhere. We took a quick hike to Washington Pass Overlook and hung around to film and take photos. Our next stop was to hike to Rainy Lake. We stopped where we thought the hike path begun but after walking for a while we started to think we weren’t in the right place. We hadn’t seen a single other person around but luckily a German couple appeared in the distance walking towards us on the hiking path. We asked them if this was the Rainy Lake trail and somehow in-between both our language barriers we figured out we were definitely in the wrong place!

We checked the map again and figured out the right place where we were meant to be and headed towards it. At the carpark we got distracted by a couple of chipmunks - we don’t have them in Australia so they are cute to watch as they scurry around! The hike to Rainy Lake was beautiful. I couldn’t help myself and would point out and exclaim about all the moss hanging from the trees every few minutes - it was amazing! We passed some look out points and waterfalls before we made it to our destination. Rainy Lake was stunning, the water was a vibrant blue which reflected the mountains and waterfalls surrounding it. Even though it was the middle of summer, there was still a pile of unmelted snow at the bank of the lake.

Since we weren’t going to get the chance to drive back through North Cascades National Park tomorrow, we decided to visit Diablo Lake one last time. Unlike yesterday, today the sun was shining brightly and the water was such a brilliant shade of turquoise. It was ever so slightly less windy so we made sure to spend a little extra time here soaking in the landscape. 

It was only our second day in Washington but I already feel like we’ve seen so much!

all photos edited with my NEW Washington Lightroom Preset