I think North Cascades National Park in Washington State is my favorite of the three located there. It is remote and the terrain is very different from the rest of the state. It is not set adjacent to a single mountain but in the mountains. As the name implies: water plays a central part in the features through out the park. There are a number of hydroelectric dams which you’ll see in this post.

Having only spent an afternoon in the park, my experience there isn’t very thorough. However, I think I saw some great elements and that means there will be plenty to see on the way back around next time. I didn’t write a lot about my time there so these pictures will have to tell the story better than my words.

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Gorge Hydroelectric

The edge of North Cascades National Park.

One Bridge or Another

A powered bridge, an electrified fence

“Leave the goods at the edge and walk away”

The Electric Forest

Tucked into the hillside next to the hydroelectric dam photo posted yesterday was this short trail that ran adjacent to a small cascading waterfall.

From a Vantage Point

The solitude was enriching. Moments connected into a catalog of thoughts that wouldn’t grow where the confines of domesticity prevailed.

While writing each character in the words of songs, or poem-like forms, even the final prose that gathered around the fragments of memories - a realization became crystal again where the monotony of common routine would have calcified instead.

Forgotten views were restored by fresh cool waters and air that never knew what happened in the days between.

Getting to the Goods Soon

🎵 Just around the river bend 🎵

Diablo Hydroelectric

This scene reminded me of playing Fallout. I saw so few people while I was at this site. There was a string of residences, single buildings in rows with no occupants save one. Truly an edge-of-the-world experience with a ghost town vibe.

This is only the beginning.

Diablo’s Incline Plane

🎵 This station is non-operational 🎵

Diablo’s Dam from Bed

A peek at where we’re headed

There was a marker warning to go no farther into this river bed and a camera setup on a post to monitor.

Diablo’s Trail

As we talked about before: you’ll need to go up the mountain

...but the trail may not always be clearly marked

Diablo Emerges

As I reached the end of the trail that curved around the cliffside, a full view of the Diablo Dam could finally be seen.

It was a low-flow day apparently. After making my way through the ground level installation and the trail without seeing anyone, it was nice to interact with a few students taking pictures on the dam during their summer break.

Diablo’s Crevice

Look around you - There’s fish everywhere.

Diablo Lake

If at some point you thought I went off the deep end, does that leave you in the shallows?

Here is a bonus take on the above picture:

I like to play around with the images and see what happens. Pretty happy with how this one came out.

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Have you been to Washington yet? I’ve passed through the state a few times now over the last 3 years, though none have been as extensive as last year. I’ve still never visited Seattle, for example. I’m not really a city person anymore and maybe I never really was but I increasingly find myself drawn to natural settings with as few people in the vicinity as possible.

Surely, the suburbs were homogenized first but the cities are now becoming the same ubiquitous corporate tapestries. Architecture remains interesting but the metropolitan cultures seem to have become unbound by geography as the Internet has connected communities digitally. It makes the need to visit them to absorb regional culture decrease. Accents are disappearing along with the ethnic neighborhoods that formerly carved up the cities before waves of gentrification changed the populations’ metrics.

All that said: I love traveling

Thanks for reading!