2018 Washington State National Parks Trip

We visited 3 national parks in Washington State from July 2 to July 14, 2018. These 3 national parks are North Cascade National Park, Olympic National Park and Mount Rainier National Park.  We also traveled to Mount Baker Recreation Area in Mount Baker National Forest, several attractions in Okannogan National Forest (east side of North Cascade National Park), Stehekin (Lake Chelan National Recreation Area), and Seattle.   June/Ben Ou, Peggy/JC Sha and Fei/Tony Tarn went together for this trip.  It was a nice trip with many wonderful sceneries, nature hikes, good food, and exciting shopping.  

The itinerary was as the following:

July 2, 2018 - Traveled from Houston to Seattle, visited Seattle Downtown 

July 3, 2018 - North Cascade National Park Diablo Lake Area

July 4, 2018 - Mount Baker Recreation Area

July 5, 2018 - Okanogan National Forest Area

July 6, 2018 - Traveled to Stehekin in the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area

July 7, 2018 - Stehekin

July 8, 2018 - Back from Stehekin to Chelan

July 9, 2018 - Drove to Olympic National Park

July 10, 2018 - Olympic National Park Quilcene Trail Area, Sol Duc Area, Hot Tin Rain Forest and Ruby Beach

July 11, 2018 - Olympic National Park Hurricane Ridge Area, Ralito Beach, drove to Puyallup

July 12, 2018 - Mount Rainier National Park Sunrise Visitor Center Area

July 13, 2018 - Mount Rainier National Park Henry M Jackson Memorial Visitor Center Area

July 14, 2018 - Seattle, traveled back to Houston

The route map of this trip is as the follows,

July 2, 2018 - Traveled from Houston to Seattle, Visited Seattle Downtown

We took United Airline's direct flight to Seattle and arrived at Seattle around 3PM. After we got our rental car, we decided to visit the famous Pike Place Chowder Restaurant in the downtown area.  Peggy and JC tried to get some clam chowder from this famous restaurant in their previous trips to Seattle and were not successful due to long lines in each of their visits.  However, we were lucky to found a shorter line around 4PM and had this wonderful clam chowder.  

We then visited Starbuck’s Warehouse as JC recommended and had a good time there. 

Then we drove to Burlington to rest up for our next day's visit to North Cascade National Park.

July 3, 2018 - North Cascade National Park Diablo Lake Area

Since there is no lodging accommodation inside or nearby North Cascade NP, we have to drive about 1 hour to reach North Cascade NP.  First, we visited the visitor center to get info regarding easy trials and interesting attractions in the area.

The first hiking trail was River Loop Trail by the North Cascade Visitor Center.  The trail is 1.8 miles total along the Skagit River and has easy paved trail to walk on.

Then we went to Gorge Creek Falls to see the Gorge Creek Falls.  We walked across the street to get closer to the fall for photos.  Turn out, it was still too far for good photos, however, there is a smaller fall further down the road with better photo moment.

We drove across the Diablo Dam to the other side of Diablo Lake.  We found a nice spot for our outdoor lunch. The spot is next to the lake and we walked around for more photos.  We even had a chance of touching the fresh lake water.  We also had photos on the dam when we drove back passing the dam.  

Next stop was the Diablo Lake Overlook which is further east on Route 20.  The view was spectacular.

Then we realized that we missed the Ladder Creek Falls Trail.  We had to get back to the visitor center to ask for direction.  The ranger told us that we could visit the Gorge Powerhouse too.  After a short visit of the powerhouse, we finally found the trailhead of the Ladder Creek Falls Trail.  It is an easy trail with boardwalk and ladders.  After we hiked the trail, we were glad that we didn't miss this trail. This is the trail no one shall miss for its easy walkway, beautiful falls and an impressive hanging bridge. 

The last activity of the day was to take photos on a train engine car in the nearby park.

July 4, 2018 - Mount Baker Recreation Area

We traveled to Mount Baker Recreation Area to visit several attractions along the Mount Baker Scenic Byway (Route 542).  Our plan was to visit the Heather Meadows Visitor Center for tour information first.  After we got into Mount Baker Recreation Area, we were able to view the beautiful Mount Baker from many different spots along the way driving up to Heather Meadows Visitor Center. 

When we got closer to the top, we realized that there was still snow on the ground near the visitor center.  After we inquired park rangers in the visitor center, we were told that many hiking trails near the visitor center still had snow on it and most of them were impassable at this time of the year.  She suggested us to drive up to Artist Point to see the beautiful view up there.  It was another 20 minutes drive on the winding road up to Artist Point.  When we got there, we realized that it is on top of a mountain, and there were skiers still doing skiing there.  The temperature was not that low so we could walk around wearing short sleeves.  It was a different experience with wearing spring clothing and walking on the snow.  The view were just spectacular.  Also, we had our lunch there.

Then, we drove down from the mountain, stopped by Picture Lake and hiked on the Picture Lake Trail.  It is an easy and short trail. We saw a picture on the national park’s guide showing a beautiful lake picture with Mount Baker as the backdrop along with wonderful reflection of Mount Baker on the lake water.  We tried very hard to find this spot which would provide us the opportunity of taking an equally good reflection picture.  After several tries, we finally found the spot and was able to wait for clam water on the lake and got the chance of seeing wonderful reflections of Mount Baker on the Picture Lake.  Needless to say, we took the opportunity of taking many photos.

On our way back to Mount Baker Scenic Byway (Route 542), we stopped by the Nooksack Falls and had a wonderful time.

July 5, 2018 - Okanogan National Forest Area

Today we drove east to Okanogan National Forest Area to visit attractions east of the North Cascade National Park.  The first stop was Rainy Lake Trail to visit the Rainy Lake.  It is an easy and short trail, however, there was still snow on part of the trail. It was walkable but we had to be extra careful.  There were 2 different spots with fallen trees which we had to cross over.  When we got to the lake, it was just amazing and peaceful.  We took the opportunity to have our packed lunch there.

The next stop was the Washington Pass Overlook.  There is a very short and paved trail to allow us to reach different spots to view Liberty Bell Mountain, Early Winter Spires, and Silver Star Mountain.  There are giant rocks at the end of the trail. We climbed up for rest and taking photos.

Then, we drove to Wenatchee for overnight stay.

July 6, 2018 - Travel to Stehekin in the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area

We got up early, then drove to Chelan to board the Lady Express speedboat at 8:30AM to Stehekin.  There are only two ways to reach Stehekin. One is to take Lady Express ferry or hiking over 11 hours from North Cascade National Park’s trail.  It is one of the most remote area we had ever visited.  There is no cell phone or TV connections.  The only thing one can do there is exploring the nature and relaxing.  The North Cascade Lodge we booked 6 months ago is located next to the ferry dock, so we just walked across the street to get to the hotel.  In front of the hotel there are decks with many chairs for people just to sit and glaze at this beautiful Lake Chelan.  The types of transportation in Shehekin are either taking shuttle bus provided by the hotel, or renting bicycles.  There are many hiking trails in this areas for visitors.

After we checked into the hotel, we got on a shuttle bus to visit Rainbow Fall.  The shuttle bus took us through the only road in this area and it is right next to Lake Chelan. The  scenery is beautiful.  Periodically, we saw deers eating grass next to the road.  The shuttle bus stopped at Rainbow Fall area for just 20 minutes.  There are short walks to see the fall from the bottom or from a little bit higher ground.  The Rainbow Fall is pretty impressive. 

After we got back to the hotel, we decided to take a short hike on Imus Creek Trail which is circled around our hotel.  From many points, you can see the beautiful Chelan Lake from higher up.  It was very interesting toward the end of the trail where we spotted a mama deer with a baby deer just wondering around next to the trail.  Since there were campers next to the trail in the area, we believed these deers may be trying to find food.

The hotel also has one of the two restaurants in the area.  Therefore, we just had our dinner at this hotel restaurant.