NORTH CASCADES & THE ISLANDS - WASHINGTON

Jules’ Journal: North Cascades National Park

By: Julianne Lillie, 6/14/23

This was the last of 3 major national parks in Washington that we visited! And by far was the most remote. Much of the park can only be accessed by private air or boat travel! And we also learned that North Cascades National Park is jointly administered with Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area… they just all touch and therefore run together! That’s why this park is called North Cascades National Park complex. We decided to start at the Visitor Center to see what was open and within our range to do.

The North Cascades Visitor Center was one hour and 20 min. away from our RV campground in Burlington. We arrived shortly after 10am and learned that all the Rangers were still in training and unfortunately the park video was broken. But we still stamped our passports and browsed the exhibits.

We learned that Glacier Lilies help melt the snow away.

And learned about “watermelon snow.” There is a type of red snow algae that can live in snow, and it turns the snow pink looking like a watermelon color. There are worms that eat the red algae in the snow which then feeds the native birds during the winter. The birds just need to look for the watermelon snow to know where the worms are. Pretty neat!

Kids earned their Jr Ranger badge #122! As we were leaving we saw a striking Stellar's Jay!

We then walked out to a viewpoint to see the mountain range, but it was a bit cloudy.

We then geared up (it was cold!) and set out for 4 short hikes giving us a total of a little over 3 miles of hiking for the day to explore!

1. Rock Shelter Trail – This trail had a beautiful stream that led to a large rock shelter that showed signs that Native Americans used it for shelter.

We also saw mushrooms and a beautiful garter snake on this trail!

2. Trail of the Cedars – The trailhead started at the Newhalem powerhouse which is one of 3 dams on the Skagit River.

We learned these 3 dams create Gorge Lake, Lake Diablo, & the largest, Ross Lake. On this trail we saw large Red Cedar and Douglas Fir trees. We got walk along the Skagit River's edge a ways.

We also got to walk across the Skagit River on a pedestrian suspension bridge. Jett loved that the bridge swayed and moved as we walked. Jaycie did not like it, she decided to stay put until we came back for her!

We did see some pretty flowers on the other side and found all the Rangers in training in 3 different groups.

3. Ladder Falls Trail – This was a very interesting trail that started with a suspension bridge over the Gorge near the Gorge Powerhouse.

Jaycie conquered her fear this time and crossed it! The trail then winded up the side of a cliff where we could see the beautiful waterfall named Ladder Falls!

The cliffside is also a flower garden. We learned that back in the 20’s, an artist fascinated with light, color, and water got permission to use the powerhouse’s electricity to run lighting with different colored bulbs throughout the waterfall & flower garden and to this day is still lit up at night as a beautiful spectacle for all to enjoy! Wow! He was way before his time!

The flowers were beautiful on this trail and Jaycie even found a raspberry to eat!

The trail led us to the backside of the Gorge Powerhouse where we could walk inside and see the 4 turbines generating electricity. We got to browse the exhibits where we learned the history behind the hydroelectric project. And these series of 4 powerhouses light 40% of Seattle to this day!

We then drove to our last trail, but on the way drove beside Diablo Lake and saw the most gorgeous views! We had to pullover and get out of the truck and walked back across the bridge. On one side of the bridge, you could see the turquoise blue water of Diablo Lake.

And on the other side of the bridge, you could see this magnificently tall waterfall! We were stunned!

There was no name for these falls, so it could be that it only falls in the late spring?? We also saw another small waterfall 20 yards from the big one. So pretty!

As we continued to our last trail, we had a hold up. There was a large tree that had fallen into the road and the clearing crew was working to pull it off the road.

Only they were having quite the time! We rolled up on them first, so we had a front row spot to watch all the action.

First Pull:

Second Pull:

Third Pull:

After the third pull, you can see the poor pickup ended up with a crunched bumper and a flat tire (rear passenger side). So, they ended up calling in reinforcements and just directed traffic around the mess.

4. We finally made it tour last trail which was Happy Creek Trail. It was a short little trail that followed a happy little creek.

We could’ve taken it further to Happy Creek Falls; however, we were running out of time and at this point are at least 2 hours from our camper.

Our last stop was Ross Lake Overlook. It offered spectacular views of the beautiful turquoise blue mountain lake. The clouds had shifted so we could barely see the snowcapped peaks!

We headed back to the RV and arrived in time for laundry, a quick grocery run, and tuned into Cedar Point Students online to engage in worship. Super fun day! And as I was scratching off my National Park poster, I realized I had gotten a BINGO! We've officially explored 40 out of the 65 major National Parks. We still have 5 more major ones to visit before the end of the July!

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: Whales & Bunnies!

By: Jaycie Lillie, 6/15/23

Did you know that Orcas are the biggest dolphin and are also whales!? Yup! We took a Ferry to Orcas Island to go whale watching. After our ferry was delayed, we were 30 minutes late, but we still made our boat!

Turned out we aren’t the only ones they were waiting on! Some people went to the wrong location and others were on the same ferry as we were. Here's a map to show everywhere our whale watching boat took us. These waters around the islands are called the Salish Sea.

The water was very clear.

It started out as a pretty nice day, but got colder as the evening came. Fist we saw some seals!

Then a bald eagle! First of about 6 or 7 that we saw during our trip.

We saw the Bald Eagle on the San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge Island.

After a while of riding we saw a fin! Turns out we found a whole pod of 4 Orcas! Here are the best videos and photos:

We came upon this ugly island, Spiden Island, which was cleared out in the 60s. The owner wanted it to look like a Savannah.

He even went as far as importing lions, giraffes, rhinos, African Big Horn and many other exotic animals. He would charge large amounts of money to go hunting there. Missed Bullets were found going through the windows of the nearby islands! Yikes! Imagine going fishing and seeing a lion on the island or a tall Giraffe grazing???!!! I would get out of there! Some animals are still on the island today that couldn’t swim. Pronghorns and the African Big Horn. Because the trees are gone on that island, erosion is happening fast. The current owner is unknown. They went through a lot of trouble to be unknown by the public. But our crew thinks it is the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.

Once after the boat ride, we ate dinner on Orcas Island while we waited on the Ferry.

We saw a lot of wild bunnies!!!!!! They were everywhere all around the restaurant!

Here’s the creative video I made and posted to Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f90V5oHL268

Now, that’s Bunny hoppin’ news for sure!

Jett’s Wild Flight: Whidbey Island

By: Jett Lillie, 6/16/23

We woke up and I wasn’t feeling good. My head hurt and I felt like I had a sinus infection. But I didn’t let that stop me. My mom gave me some medicine which helped a little.

We traveled an hour across Anacortes Island, across the “pass”...

...and onto Whidbey Island to reach Ebey’s Landing National Historical Preserve. Here I am in Jacob & Sarah Ebey's old cottage.

And their Blockhouse - used as a defense against the hostile natives in the 1850s.

We learned what it was like living on this island and farming it in the 1850s and earned our Jr Ranger badge #123.

Then we headed to Coupeville and explored the Wharf and shops.

They had a giant whale skeleton hanging on the inside.

And out back they had a bell to ring if you saw a Whale.

When we walked down on the dock, we saw lots of huge starfish in the water when the tide was way low. The water was pretty clear!

Then we ate our picnic lunch at Fort Casey’s State Park.

We explored the battery and saw the ocean.

We also walked the beach and looked at a ton of driftwood. My Dad and I skipped rocks into the ocean.

We explored the Admiralty Head Lighthouse and got to walk up into where the light used to be.

At the top of the lighthouse, we could see everything! We could see out over the ocean.

On our way back to the visitor center we picked up trash like good Jr Rangers and we both got special pins for turning in our bag of trash. We also turned in our Washington State Jr Ranger booklets we had been working on since Mount St. Helen’s. We got a cool wooden badge like the national park ones. The badge had a beaver on it since Washington is known as the "Beaver State."

We then headed home and ate dinner to prepare for traveling to Idaho tomorrow!