Mt. Rainier Park was a wonderful one-day trip, and of course
it could have more days. Dan and I had
made a decision that although there are hundreds more places to visit in the
United States, Dan remembered a trip he took as a college student to Banff and
Jasper National Parks in Canada, and he wanted me to see them, too.
Our friends back in Florida were assuring us that all was
well with Sea Star, our sailboat, but you really can’t leave Florida during
hurricane season if you own a boat without worrying about the fickle
weather. Sadly, we needed to bring our
fantastic travel vacation to a close.
“pretty soon.”
Dan had made some great choices; when to begin our trip to
have decent weather out west, (the temperature hit 100 degrees only a few times
while we were in the desert), to move
relatively quickly to maximize the places it would be reasonable to visit in a
few months, to take the car and trailer to back-up the bike, allowing days of
rest or more 4X4 adventure and air conditioning! So I allowed him to make a few more- we were
indeed going to travel to Banff and Jasper Parks and we could pack our gear and
camping equipment efficiently enough to drive to those parks, adding Glacier
National Park to make a loop back to Montana, and use only the bike- an R 1200
RT with two saddle bags and a Givi Case.
But we were not in Montana yet. We had 400 miles to go! It would be a great and scenic drive though.
Fife, Washington on the southeast side of Seattle was where
we were. We did not go into, but near
the city of Seattle staying on route 5 and headed north to the town of
Burlington. I knew we were missing city stuff, especially the Seattle Space Needle, but "you can't do it all". We traveled the busy
highway, Dan on the first day of his brand new motorcycle tires, in the fog and
rain Seattle is known for. The rain
continued as we turned onto rt. 20 heading east on the Cascade Scenic Highway.
State Route 20 is the northernmost route across the Cascade
Mountain Range in WASHINGTON and is part
of the Cascade Loop, a 400-mile driving tour through the Cascades. We, unfortunately, were only heading east , not
riding the loop. We knew we would pass through an area of high mountains on both sides of the road, starting with Baker Mountain, 10,781 ft. in North Cascades National Park. We would also be passing through Newhalem where there were three campsites. That night, we were awoken with a blasting horn at about 2:00 AM. We found out the next morning as we passed Diablo that the noise was a warning the nearby dam was about to discharge excess water. So on through Okanogan and Coville National Forests, also Pend Oreille and the Kalispel Indian area- to the Idaho border.
From Cascades Information:
What is known today as the North Cascades Highway was
originally the corridor used by local Native American tribes as a trading route
from Washington's Eastern Plateau country to the Pacific Coast used for more
than 8,000 years. After the California Gold Rush of 1849, white settlers
started to arrive in the North Cascades looking for gold as well as fur-bearing
animals. What they encountered were the rugged,
remote peaks of the North Cascades, just east of Washington Pass. Building a road was thought to be too
difficult at the time.
The Cascade Pass route began to be roughed out in 1897 and
shortly afterward, state highway maps showed the road as either State Highway 1
or the Cascade Wagon Road. In the following years, floods on the Cascade River
took out most of the work completed on the road and led Washington's first
State Highway Commissioner to report in 1905 that almost all the money
appropriated for the road had been wasted. The Spring melt run-off undermined the road,
just as may happen today, (but the Spring thaws from Baker and other mountains
creates the fabulous cascading waterflows the area is known for.)
By 1936, increased population and interest for a northern
route over the high Cascades, again persuaded highway promoters to try a route
across Rainy and Washington Pass. In 1953, the North Cascades Highway
Association was formed with politicians, lobbyists, and business owners pushing
Olympia harder to move forward on the highway plan. Companies requested sales of old-growth
timber from along the highway corridor. The timber requests were used to
support the need for a highway.
The State of Washington decided to build a highway from the
town of Diablo to Thunder Arm, a southern arm of Diablo Lake. Funds were also
available to improve access roads on both sides of the North Cascades and
construction on this section of the highway began in 1959. Over the next nine
years, construction of the road would continue along with the signing of the
North Cascades National Park bill by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. With
this bill, the hope of using the highway as access for high-dollar timber sales
was quashed. Businessmen and residents
on both sides of the North Cascades were hopeful and supportive of the tourist
dollars that were anticipated when the Highway would open.
At Burlington where
we turned on, we followed the city's streets around the Cascade Mountains to
Washington Pass; Jagged peaks, deep valleys, cascading waterfalls, and over 300
glaciers are in North Cascades National Park.
The cities of Winthrop and Twisp are off the road and the route
continues down the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. Republic and Kettle Falls are on the route
toward Colville before reaching the final destination 1000 ft at the
Washington/Idaho State Line.
North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake, and Lake Chelan are
National Recreation Areas. These protected lands are part of Stephen Mather
Wilderness. People had told us the road was a possible place to see mountain
goats. For one long day of driving we watched people enjoying the excellent
bicycling along the Cascades road. There
were groups dressed alike and in the best gear, a peloton blasting at top speed
up the mountain and just vacationers and families enjoying the day. We rarely saw other motorcycle riders, but
there were a few that day.
Dan and I crossed into IDAHO and a few hundred miles later,entered MONTANA again, heading for the town of
Eureka.
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