Newhalem Creek, WA

 Drove to the Cascades National Park. Didn't know what was in the way so we were quite surprised to find Winthrope which is a tourist town in the wild west style! We didn't stay too long as we were keen to get to the mountains.

Unfortunately the mountains were on fire! Well at least those in the north of the park 240 miles away. The wind sent the smoke down to where we were but we were in no danger. A ranger told us the fire was started by lightning so at least it was a natural fire which the forest relys on.

After taking some pictures of the smoke we pitched up at Newhalem Creek Campground owned by the National Park Service. Like a lot of our campsites this was in a beautiful forest of very tall trees. Cedar, Hemplock and Fir. We took a walk through some old growth forest which was lovely and by then the smoke had cleared somewhat and we could go see some mountains.

North Cascades NP has about 300 glaciers which is 276 more than Glacier NP.  The only ones we could spot were on the Pinnacle Range but they looked much more like proper size glaciers! 

Went back to some viewpoints to see Ross Lake (freshwater blue) and Diablo Lake (glacier green) 

Spanish style rice with pepperoni and cheese for dinner. I'm lucky Ada is as unfussy as me when it comes to camp cooking. Some kind of quick-cook flavoured rice, pasta or cous cous with a tin of tuna, tin of tomatoes and maybe some fresh veg if we have it has done us just fine. 

Diablo Lake in the evening 
Winthrope 
The Cascades are on fire! 
Smokey Diablo Lake
I found a train! 
Another beautiful campground

Forest walk

The Picket Range -hazy due to smoke but we could see the glaciers clearly in real life! 
Ross Lake
Diablo Lake


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