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| One of the more unique entrance signs! |
Our third stop on our Washington National Parks road trip was North Cascades National Park. We were going to take the ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, making our drive about 125 miles and 3.5 hours; however, when I went to reserve the ferry and, with our RV length limiting the options, the morning ferries were sold out. So, we drove around Puget Sound, a few more miles, but it really didn't take much longer. Along the way, we were also able to meet up with a friend and former colleague who moved to the Seattle area about 30 years ago.
North Cascades National Park, at just under 505,000 acres, is the 20th largest national park. In 2024, the park had 16,485 visitors, making it one of the least-visited national parks. This low visitation is attributed to the park's remote location and difficulty of access. While you can get to the North Cascades area quite easily from Seattle, technically, you're not in the park in any of the most popular areas. This includes where the national park entrance sign is located, just west of the Visitor Center. If you look at the map below, there are two sections to the park, separated by the Lake Ross National Recreational Area. To actually enter the park boundary requires an off-road vehicle and hiking, or taking a ferry from Chelan to the Golden West Visitor Center.
We parked the RV at a KOA in Concrete, WA, known for, you guessed it, concrete production. There are a lot of dams in the area, and that requires a lot of concrete! Our first full day we drove 30 miles to the Visitor's Center, driving along Hwy 20, which follows the Skagit River. After a quick stop at the Gorge Overlook, we continued across the Diablo Dam (one car at a time!) to the Diablo Lake Trailhead. This was a 4-mile hike with the first half in the woods, then skirting the cliffs along the Skagit River, where we could catch glimpses of Diablo Lake, and eventually the Ross Lake Dam. We discovered we could take a ferry back to the trailhead, and as luck would have it we only had to wait about 30 minutes for the next ferry. The ride back was beautiful, and we could relax and enjoy the turquoise water, caused by "glacial flour" (finely ground rock particles) suspended in the water. This color can become a more opaque, pale green or grayish-green when more glacial silt is present, especially in late summer, from tributaries like the Suiattle River, which carries silt from Glacier Peak. Gorgeous.
The next day, we drove to the Lake Diablo overlook and enjoyed a different view of this beautiful green-blue lake. We then returned to the Visitor Center for a short hike along a winding trail, eventually ending up at a set of falls along Newhalem Creek. And as we alluded to in the Olympic National Park blog, who did we run into again... the same two young ladies we ran into on the trail in Olympic! After returning to the Concrete area, we enjoyed a beer and a snack at the Birdseye Brewing Company.
Overall, we enjoyed this beautiful area with the turquoise blue water. If I were to revisit, I would definitely try the ferry from Chelan to see the more remote areas near the Golden West area, including the Buckner Orchard, which the National Park Service maintains to this day. One last stop on this trip, Leavenworth!Have you ever been to North Cascades National Park? Leave your comments below! Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
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