Good morning, my friends. Yesterday was spent exploring North Cascades National Park. As usual, I took too many pictures. You'll probably want to top off your coffee before we go on.
So why is this a national park? Well, it's mainly the advocacy of this man, Henry Jackson, a former senator. We found the story toward the end of our day.
We're seeing more and more fall color on our excursions.
This is another one of those parks with several entrances, many miles apart. We happen to be at the North Cascades side of the park. The visitor center is just about 10 miles from where we're staying. We wanted to check in to learn about any hikes we might enjoy, to raid their gift shop of any refrigerator magnets or shot glasses we might like to add to our collection, and to learn about any wildfire or flooding closures. So..."Closed for the Winter"? Huh? We're barely into fall, right? They must mean they
will be closed for the winter.
To reach the visitor center, we had to cross this one-lane bridge. There were traffic signals at both ends.
I'd read we could see burn scar leading up to the visitor center. Sure enough.
There was plenty of parking in the parking lot...always appreciated. Here's the visitor center.
Okay, so join with me now as I once again evoke Gilda Radner as Emily Letilla..."Never mind."
No worries. There was an information board outside, and I took pictures of the info on any hikes we might like to do. We drove up the road about five miles to the little town of Newhalem. Newhalem is a company town owned by Seattle City Light with residency limited to employees and contractors of the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, or of local county, state or federal agencies. (I'll say more about that in a minute.) The name "Newhalem" has its roots in a local indigenous language as meaning 'Goat Snare'. The natives used to trap mountain goats in the area. In pre-colonial times, the site was inhabited by members of the Upper Skagits.
We were there to do the Trail of the Cedars hike. We parked and headed for the trailhead. Along the way, I saw these pretty blooming things:
We'd driven past the trailhead the first time through town, which turned out to be a good thing. (I'll say more about that in a minute too.) I'm not sure how we missed it because the trailhead was marked with a big sign and a suspension bridge.
Is this tribute precious, or what?
We crossed the bridge over the Skagit River. (Pronounced SKA-jit.) The river is free-flowing from here to the Puget Sound.
It was once important in navigation and log drives. Salmon spawn in the tributaries downstream from here. They were never able to spawn farther upstream because of a natural barrier. (I'll say more about that in a minute too.) Looking in the other direction, it looked like this:
This sign was interesting, and we saw a lot of warning signs about the possibility of rapid increase in the water level.
This was a short loop trail, about a mile in length. Much of the information on the signs related to a fire in 1922 that burned on the east side of the river. Of course, trees are destroyed in a fire, but some resist the flames. New types of plants invade and re-establish. Over decades and centuries, a forest will re-establish itself similar to what it was before the fire.
As an example...paper birch. It grows from seeds carried by the wind, and it takes over quickly after a forest fire. Young trees cannot survive in the shade, and so paper birch is eventually replaced by trees that can tolerate shade. Here's one:
Old-growth Douglas fir is able to withstand ground fires because of its thick, furrowed bark. On the other hand, the Western Redcedar is more susceptible to fire damage because of its relatively thin fibrous bark and shallow root system. Here's an example of a cedar that continues to survive despite being burned in its center.
Looking up, the tree is still alive.
Here are the three tree stumps.
Behind, we could see the rotting remains of them.
Here, you can see all the way through the trunk of the tree below. Most mature Western Redcedar are rotten in the middle from a fungus that will rot the "heartwood." However, a toxic substance in the "sapwood" will resist the attack. It's nutrients are carried in the outer wood of the tree, and so it can survive without the heartwood. If the tree is girdled, however, it will die. In the image below, you can see the opening near the top of the center dark wedge.
Speaking of fungus...
This was about the size of a golf ball.
Okay, and I've already mentioned the area's penchant for flooding. If you happen to hear the roar of cascading floodwaters, this is what you should do. Go that way.
Just follow me, and we'll go up the hillside right here.
At the far end of the loop, we encountered the Newhalem Powerhouse. It was originally built in 1921 and supplied electricity to operate a sawmill at the construction camp for the Gorge Dam. (I'll say more about that in a minute.) It caught fire and burned in 1966. A break in an associated penstock pipe used to transport water from the dam to the powerhouse caused water to spray the surrounding trees, thus saving the forest. What we saw here was the new powerhouse that was put into operation in 1970.
Also...this: It's a "tailrace barrier" that prevents salmon from taking a wrong turn.
Water flowing from the powerhouse was diverted from Newhalem Creek, but then returned to the river. The entrance to Newhalem Creek is downstream of where we were standing. For spawning salmon the missed turn into Newhalem Creek would send them into the powerhouse. This barrier prevents that from happening.
A nearby sign posed the question, "Can't salmon jump that high?" As it turns out the water will be shallow here. In shallow water, a salmon's tail isn't completely under water, and so it can't gain the momentum it needs to jump the barrier. Also, water is flowing over the upper portion. The high speed of the flow ensures that salmon won't get into trouble here.
I wish I'd stood at a different angle for this next picture. It shows four Western Redcedars growing in a straight row, as if they'd been planted that way. As it turns out, they all got their start on the same nurse log.
We were nearing the end of the loop by then. We walked down to the river where the bridge was above us.
These pretty fall leaves were growing there.
Okay, now I promised you a few things "in a minute." Here's where we start on that. Because we'd taken a wrong turn earlier, we noticed the Gorge Powerhouse. It is a part of the Skagit Hydroproject to Seattle, and first began delivering power to Seattle in 1924. The rushing water underneath the powerhouse produced up to 170 megawatts of power, enough to light up almost 9,000 homes.
We're going to cross this narrow suspension bridge to the right. It was originally built in 1920 to allow construction workers access to the powerhouse site. It has been rebuilt twice, most recently in 1983.
We're going to cross over to see...
It's a narrow bridge, barely wide enough for two average size adults to pass one another.
From there, the river looked like this:
We're going to hike up to see the falls in a minute. We didn't see anything that resembled a "garden" here. Maybe we just weren't looking in the right place. But the gardens were the creation of James Delmage Ross. He was Seattle City Light's second superintendent and the son of a Scottish horticulturalist. He combined his love of plants with his interest in electricity. Starting in 1925, he created a garden surrounding the powerhouse for visitors' entertainment and enjoyment.
Public tours were conducted beginning in 1922. Tours originated in Seattle and were three-day events. The gardens and Ladder Creek Falls became a highlight of the tours. This was the only thing we saw that in any way resembled a garden.
So, let's just head on up the dusty trail toward the falls, shall we? Follow me.
And, well, let's let Emily Letilla weigh in again: Never mind.
We're assuming the bridge here was closed because of that broken off snag blocking the path. We briefly considered climbing over the barrier, but the bridge looked a little rickety. We decided it wasn't our day to die.
No worries. We're going to climb some stairs up to see Fish Ladder Falls. We have a lot of steps ahead of us, but you guys are fit as fiddles. I have complete faith in you. Let's go.
Watch your step on those wet rocks. They can be slippery.
Huff. Puff. Huff. Puff. You can take a little breather here.
We're not there yet. C'mon...you can do it!
We're not there yet...just a little way farther.
And there it is! Look at you! You made it!
This was a huge waterfall that fell in various stages, lending to its name "Fish Ladder Falls." Below is a little video of it.
Okay, and so from there, we headed back down the stairs, back across the bridge to our car. Our next stop would be the Diablo Lake Overlook. We passed through a tunnel, and you know that always excites us.
Along our way, we passed by a sign directing us to the Gorge Overlook Trail. It would give us views of free-flowing cascades of water and the Gorge Dam. It was a short hike of just 400 yards. From one of the overlooks, we could see this:
And from here, we could see the Gorge Dam.
And what about the fish? There were more than 2.5 miles of rapids that begin behind the Gorge Powerhouse (seen above), making it hard for fish to swim upstream through the narrow and turbulent waters. Seattle City Light is doing extensive research to learn more about the best ways of protecting fish, including salmon, in the Skagit River. Their "Fish First Policy" requires they ensure that changing water levels don't hurt fish. Water flows are carefully managed year-round to help young salmon develop safely, even if it means less power is generated.
Okay, and back in the car, we passed through another tunnel on our way to the Diablo Lake Overlook.
Standing at the overlook, looking to the right, it looks like this:
Looking left, it looks like this:
Looking behind us, we could see several small glaciers in the mountains.
Heading back, we passed by Diablo Dam.
Also, we stopped on our way back to walk across a bridge that gave us a good view of the Gorge Waterfall. Looking down from the bridge, we could see some of the rapids.
The waterfall here was impressive.
Here's a short video:
Okay, well, if you've followed along this far, then you can call yourself a trooper. Our day took us about four hours from the time we left our RV to when we returned. We saw a lot of stuff, and only some of it was a part of our original plan.
We're still mulling over what to do today. We'll do some more hiking, and I'll check back with you tomorrow on how what we end up doing. For now, Mike is making waffles. Breakfast is next. And after all that hiking, I'm hungry. How about you?
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