North Cascades

#ERT_2015 Day 9 – North Cascades NP to Olympic NP – 08.04.15

Posted by Jen Groves on

This morning started off with a super fabulous hike at Diablo Lake! It was probably my favorite hike of the trip- it had a lot of varied terrain and the trail was beautiful! Those who decided not to hike got to play in the lake.

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You actually drive right past Cascadian Farm on the way to North Cascades… so we stopped there on the way out.

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I really just don’t even know what’s happening in these two photos.
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Life goals: Have a stump house. Road trip every other week. Visit every national park in the whole world. Totally achievable, right?
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This might actually be one of the very last dams you can drive across in the United States.

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THIS TRAIL. All of the obsession.
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The water is actually truly that color. It comes from what’s called “rock flour” which is the minute granules of granite and other rock ground up as glaciers shift and move. During the winter these glacial fed waters grow more clear as the rock flour settles to the bottom (since it isn’t being replenished when the glaciers aren’t melting), but in the summer the rock flour is constantly being brought into the lakes so the water turns this vibrant milky blue.

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Pancakes – the road food of champions. They’re just so easy!

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After our hike and lunch, we started our journey to Olympic National Park. On the way we stopped at Cascadian Farms, which is where they made the granola that Ivy had been eating for breakfast! While there we stopped and picked wild blackberries! They were delicious!

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All of the face-stuffing.

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We also got some YUMMY smoked salmon (to finish off our lunch, haha) and headed off to the ferry across the Sound.

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Waiting lot dinner cooking! (Time is gold, remember?) While Ivy was cooking her dinner I chatted up a couple of old ski racer dudes. You’ve gotta love the Alta apparel- the universal sign for “I am a skier.” 😉

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Packed in like sardines!
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Bracing for a huge wave… yeah, right.

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Once we got off the ferry, we had about a three hour drive to our campground on the far western edge of the Olympic Peninsula. (There was a lot of driving over these few days, haha. We really put the “road” in road trip… but isn’t that half the fun?)

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