Northern Cascades, Washington

Washington Pass
River along the Northern Cascades Highway

Dam creating Diablo Lake

Falls in the gorge at Diablo Lake


Winthrop, Washington

Our next major destination after the Olympic Peninsula was Glacier National Park in Montana. We had several choices of routes to take from Olympic National Park to Glacier National Park. We chose to take the road through the Northern Cascades in Washington. The drive was beautiful.

Most of the drive was next to rivers or lakes that were a blue-green shade that was reminiscent of the waters in the Caribbean. Seeing that almost turquoise water next to the dark green spruce trees was an amazing site. Unfortunately, the pictures do not do the colors justice :( It was so beautiful that we made several stops in the cascades just to take in the views.

On our trip we had a discussion as to why this range of mountains that run from southern Oregon to northern Washington is called The Cascades. After driving the Northern Cascade highway and visiting the area around Prospect, Oregon, we agreed we would have named the mountain range "The Cascades" because of all the water cascading down the cliffs from the snow melt. We don't know that for sure but we think the reason is plausible.

We ended our day in the small town of Winthrop. The town still has that old west look that you often see in Western movies. We enjoyed eating burgers at Three Fingered Jack's Saloon which is the oldest "legally" operating saloon in Washington State.