Two years ago, when we passed through this part of the world, we drove up Highway 20 from Concrete into the North Cascades. Back then it was raining and cloudy but the scenery was magnificent. We repeated our drive into the North Cascades National Park again today but the weather was absolutely gorgeous and the scenery was still spectacular.
We started our drive with a circuit through the town of Concrete which took about 5 minutes because Concrete is pretty small. The census indicates only 790 people claim this town as their home. The Baker and Skagit Rivers have a confluence here. Above Concrete, Highway 20 runs adjacent to the Skagit River as it passes through the narrow bottom lands between steep gorge walls until the road starts climbing slowly northeast of Marblemount. We tried to stop in Marblemount at a place famous for their cinnamon rolls but, of course, they had sold out by the time we rolled into their lot at just before noon. We were forced to drive on upriver without the tasty heart plugs sold at the bakery.
Soon, some small hydroelectric projects run by Skagit City Light (Is there a Skagit City?)can be spotted along the road and they back up both Diablo and Ross Lakes which are filled with amazingly colored turquoise water. I understand the water has this color due to the nature of its source – glacial runoff and tiny rock particles suspended in the water.
We continued up WA-20 past Ross Lake about 10 or 15 miles until we decided to turn around and head back toward Concrete. The drive coming back down offers fabulous vistas of snow-covered Cascade peaks, massive rock bluffs, forested lower mountains, turquoise lakes and rivers and great hardwood groves sprinkled alongside the road.
Although we really did not cover more than about 60 miles today, it took about 6 hours because we pulled out just about everywhere possible to gaze at the glorious surroundings. We did make a short stop in Concrete to replenish our food stocks. Peggy spotted a woman here that was particularly striking due to her complete lack of teeth.
We could happily drive into the Park once a week until it becomes boring which I doubt would ever happen. I am challenged to come up with adequate superlatives to describe the scenery along this beautiful drive.
Some of the scenery was captured by our lens today and you can see a sampling if you click here