Cascade Loop 2016

So the Cascade Loop is a road trip that takes about 9 hours of driving time and fills it with 4 or 5 days worth of stuff to do and things to see. It gives a traveler a broad overview of the climate and surroundings of Washington, and is generally pretty awesome. Chad and I are thinking of making it an annual thing -- there's enough stuff to do that we can pick one or two "destinations" on the Loop and spend the rest of the time camping and enjoying the scenery. :D

We took the Loop clockwise, basically, starting with the ferry to Whidbey Island and then mostly following HWY 20 around. We stopped and camped the first night in Newhalem, in the North Cascades National Park, which was chilly and mountainous and covered in pine trees. Then we drove through the touristy old west town of Winthrop to an AirBnB in Wenatchee, which is in the part of Washington full of scrubby desert and heat and vineyards and orchards. The third day we backtracked to take a swim in Lake Chelan, which is, no lie, the most beautiful water I've ever seen -- the lake was so clear, and so blue, it looked tropical even though it was JUST the right side of too cold. (this was very welcome, because our van doesn't have working A/C, and that side of Washington, like I said before, is HOT). There were ducks swimming around with us, Mallards I think, bobbing along and staying just out of reach of the kids in the water. Then we went through some more rocky mountains and over some impressive curves before camping for the night at Moneycreek, in the Mt. Baker-Snowqualmie National Forest. It's an old growth forest, full of massive Red Cedars and hoary, moss covered Fir. Really impressive, we'll definitely be back -- I didn't get many good pictures there, because the light was too low for my slow old workhorse camera. Next year, maybe. The fourth day we did a bit more sightseeing and touristy stuff, and then we came home!

Here are some of the best pictures:

( lots of pictures )