Friday Harbour, San Juan Islands, Washington

 We stopped by the Deception Pass Bridge State Park for a bit of a tour on the way to catch the ferry.

 

 There is a walkway on both sides of the bridge for pedestrians.  Beautiful views from the bridge.  

 

 

A walking path beneath the bridge on both sides.

 

We took a trail down to the beach area.

 

There are strong currents here - but we were at almost slack tide so it wasn't too evident.

 Onwards to the ferry dock in Anacortes.  We had reservations at 2pm so we arrived an hour early - Friday July 3rd in the middle of the day was a prime time and we wanted to make sure we were queued up and ready so we didn't miss our spot.

 We had our lunch while waiting - wonderful temperature.  With little to do, I looked up the origin of the town's name.  It's actually a made-up word in honor of the founding father's wife's maiden name - Anna Curtis.  

 

As usual, the ferry system is quite efficient.  Underway just 3 minutes late.

 

 Lovely 1 1/2 hour trip.

A ferry offloading at a different island....not sure which, but it's either Shaw, Orca or Lopez.

 

Not too many sailboats out.

 

Comfy inside the ferry.  I wandered around a bit just to have something to do. 

 

Close to our destination - Friday Harbour on San Juan Island.

 We'll be in the islands for several days, looking forward to the small-town July 4th festivities.

Glacier, Washington

 Today is our final day in the "mountains"....

First, I had read about a county park - Little Mountain Park - that offered vast views of the Skagit valley near Mount Vernon.  Unfortunately, we weren't lucky with the weather.  Just a little too hazy/cloudy.  The views were spectacular, it just doesn't convey in the photos.  Farming land in the valley with views over to the San Juan islands.

Views eastward - you should be able to see Mt. Baker but it is obscured by the clouds.

 

So we enjoyed a short trail and the views before heading north and east to the Mt. Baker National Forest.

 

A couple of hour drive to the forest entry.

 

First stop in the forest was the Nooksack Falls.

And driving on the curvy road, the views were wonderful even with all the cloud cover.

 

This is Picture Lake near the Mt. Baker visitor center.  On a calm wind day, you are supposed to see a perfect reflection of the mountain....

 

Majestic snow capped peaks.

 

Views from the Artist's Point trail.

 

While the views were beautiful, we were constantly saying "this would be spectacular on a sunny day"!

 

Did I tell you it was cold??  July 2nd - 52 degrees and breezy.

 

Quite a bit of snow left along the trail.

 

There are a couple of ski resorts on the mountain, the chairlifts were all closed though.

Tomorrow we'll head back to the west to catch a ferry over to the San Juan Islands.

 

Sedro-Woolley, Washington

 We were in a bit of a "travel mode" today.  Driving thru parts of the North Cascades NP.   It's just lovely and impressive.  Leaving Winthrop, it was dry and arid.  As we turned more westbound, the trees started to appear on the mountainsides.

Snowy peaks in the distance.  Temps yesterday were in the 80's.  Today it was 52.

 

These photos don't do justice to the grandeur.

This is Ross Lake, one of the many hydro-electric power lakes.

 

The dam.

 

And this is Diablo Lake.  Also a hydro-electric power plant.

 

They let you drive on the dam!  So I had to do that, of course.

 The view as we drove across the one lane dam.

 There was a very nice overlook area along the road for this lovely waterfall feeding the Gorge power plant.

With lovely overlooks along the path paralleling the Skagit River which feeds the Gorge powerplant.

A few miles further on the road, the actual power plant had a nice trail and waterfall.

 

The Ladder Falls were lovely and loud.  Too much for one photo though.

 

 

 

A fun suspension bridge over the Sagit River.

 

View of the Sagit River.

We stopped at the North Cascades NP Visitor center, watched the feel-good movie and had lunch.  Took a 2 mile stroll to the Skagit River.  Lovely clear water.

 And one final waterfall that is visible from the highway on the way to our stop for the night.