Day 43-July 11

Morning arrived a little earlier than usual for us today.  I woke up to an unusual amount of traffic noise and after trying to doze back off I finally gave up and climbed out of my nice warm bed. (I don't think I have mentioned this in awhile in deference to all of my southern friends and family who are keeping up with our travels, but we haven't seen temperatures above the 60's in quite some time.)  I soon found out why the noise was so loud when Jess looked out the window to see a biplane that appeared to be dive bombing the parking lot.  We finally decided that he must be spraying for mosquitoes, which is certainly something that needs to be done, but did he have to start so early?  Regardless, he helped us get an early start as we continued west towards North Cascades National Park.  There is only one main road that bisects the park. The road follows along beside Ross Lake with its beautiful clear, blue-green water.  There are also numerous waterfalls that cascade down the sides of the mountains as the snow continues to melt.  We stopped at a visitor center where we enjoyed a short walk through the trees to a vista of the Picket Range of mountains. Unfortunately they were partially covered with clouds so their "pickets" were not visible.

Lake Ross

Picket Range

We stopped for the night at Rasar State Park just west of Concrete.  There are some great trails here that lead us through a peaceful pasture where indentations in the grass showed us where deer have spent the night.  We went back later in the evening hoping to see some as they came in for the night, but all we found were some very large slugs.  The trail also follows along a river, then into an area of rain forest.  It was totally different from anything we had seen so far in our travels.  The plant growth was amazing.  Moss drapped trees, large ferns and green everywhere you look.