Winthrop, Washington

Good morning, my friends. Oh my...what a pretty place we find ourselves in today. We drove into Winthrop, Washington, yesterday afternoon.

Winthrop is such a fun little town. I can’t wait to get out and explore today. It was founded in 1890 after the Methow Valley was opened to white settlement by the indigenous Methow people. Winthrop was named for author and explorer Theodore Winthrop, who visited Washington Territory in the 1860s. The town was incorporated in 1924. Winthrop adopted an Old West theme for its downtown architecture in 1971 to prepare for the opening of the North Cascades Highway. That’s the road we drove in on.

But let’s back up to the beginning of our drive. We backtracked over road we’d traveled on our first day of sight-seeing at the North Cascades National Park. We’re seeing more fall color every day.

This next picture is one I wanted to include because I’d missed it when I wrote about this area in an earlier post. When the dams were built and the rivers flooded the valley, trees were cut down to avoid problems in the newly-formed lakes. These lakes are now part of a national recreation area. In shallow areas, tree stumps can be seen above the water’s surface.

We stopped off at the town of Newhalem on our way by. I was still on the hunt for a refrigerator magnet, and I was able to score one at the visitor information center.

We also looked for a shot glass at the general store. The only ones available were square, and I’m not interested in that. I only want traditional round shot glasses. Somehow I survived this disappointment, but you’ll note that I’m sharing it with you, my friends, because misery loves company. Thanks for listening.

Driving on, we marveled at the sharp peaks of the Cascade Range. Sharp peaks like these are indicative of young mountains. These are still being pushed up by seismic activity along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

In the image below, you can see where waterfalls probably flow in the spring.

We drove up, and up, and up, and up over the top of the mountains, and then down, and down, and down, and down into the Methow Valley. We’re east of the mountains now and the landscape is significantly drier. There are a lot of ranchers and farmers in this area, making it a good day for barns.

And here we are…in Winthrop. Wooden storefronts and boardwalks. How cool is that? This is going to be fun!

We’re staying at the state park just out of town, and so we drove through Winthrop on the main street and continued on to the campground. Along the way, we watched these wild turkeys cross the road.

Just a little farther on, this young deer ambled across the road as if it had all the time in the world. Just up the road, we saw a doe. My picture of her didn’t turn out. Bummer.

Just a few minutes later, we turned off on the road to the campground.

You can see how dry the landscape is here, and the tall dense forests are gone. 

We were a little early for check-in, but that was no problem. There are other campers here, but it feels as if we have the place to ourselves. This is the view from our campsite.

As much as I would have loved to sit there and relax with a margarita, we needed to get some groceries. We haven’t seen a grocery store bigger than a mini-mart in days, and so it was mission critical…especially when it comes to kitty treats. Even that part of the day was a delight. Just look at this grocery store. The only thing missing is a couple of hitching posts.

So, that didn’t take long, and it gave us another chance to drive through town. When we had everything put away, I was able to get Smitty out for a few minutes. We found some suitable grass for him to munch on.

It was all going purrfectly until some people walked by with a woofie on a leash. They were at least 50 feet away, and no threat at all. Nevertheless, Smitty made himself as flat as he could and flattened his ears. I kept petting him and telling him it was all right. We were able to maintain until they got safely past us, and then we made a beeline for the camper door. Frankly, I’m happy he runs for the camper when he gets scared. I know he’ll do that even if he were to slip his leash. (And he has.) Sadie on the other hand….Well. Let’s just not talk about that, okay? 

There’s that little rascal now. It’s hard to see her, but she’s in there ready to sound the alarm, if necessary.

As the light changed in late afternoon, I was able to get out and get some pictures of the fall colors. It’s really lovely here.

There’s a lake and a beach just beyond those trees.

Smooth as glass.

Walking back, this is what I saw.

That’s our camper.

This guy was sitting on the fence. He was devouring something scrumptious there, and he really didn’t want me to bother him. I took a lot of pictures of him, moving closer and closer, until I was just about ten feet from him. 

And that was a good way to end the day.

As I said, we’re going to be streetwalkers today. There’s plenty of parking on the main street. We’ll just walk up one side and down the other. I read about a “saloon” called Three Fingered Jack’s Saloon. It’s the oldest legally licensed saloon in the state of Washington. Apparently they’re famous for their Bloody Mary’s, and I happen to love a good Bloody Mary. We might eat out tonight. 

So that’s it. The day awaits. Make it a good one, my friends, and we’ll try to do the same.

Fern Creek Loop

Good morning, my friends. We'll be heading down the dusty trail again in a little while. Our next stop will be Winthrop, Washington, just up the road, and on the other side of the national park. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's talk about yesterday's activities. 

We're nearly out of ice cream, but since we still have enough vanilla, I was motivated to bake a Skillet Cherry Cobbler for Two. These are cherries from our own trees, and my adaptation of my mother's recipe to make it a skillet cobbler for two (four, actually).

When that was finished, we headed our for the day’s hike. Below, I tried once more to get a picture of the shed with the quilt block. Still a crappy picture, but maybe better than the one in yesterday’s post.

We were headed to this Washington State Park.

Here’s what I know about the park: The first settlers in the area were the Skagit tribes. They lived in a village of longhouses at the confluence of the Sauk and Skagit river. They prospered from the abundance of salmon and the evergreen forests. Then, in 1885, Leonard Graves homesteaded the land around the town that is now known as “Rockport.” Eventually, he sold the land, and the town grew from there. The property where the state park is located was owned by Sound Tember Company. Eventually, it was sold to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for $1 (1935). It was acquired by Washington State Parks in 1961. It is comprised of an old growth forest that is estimated to be 400-600 years old.

Up until 2007, there was a campground here. It’s closed to camping now out of concern over the stability of old growth trees and the potential hazard they pose to campers. Indeed, on our hike, we saw many fallen trees. This road once led to a campground. We simply walked up to find the trailhead.

The trees still standing were nothing short of awe-inspiring for their height and their girth. 

We hadn’t reached the trailhead yet when we spotted this big boy. (Again…when I say “big boy” I mean the tree, not Mike.)

Eventually, we came to a posted map telling us that we’d reached the trailhead and showing us its route. We were on the Fern Creek Trail.

It was a day for looking up.

There were many fallen logs fully encased in these ferny-mossy ecosystems.

It’s a little late in the year for wildflowers, but I spotted this little violet.

The trail was dirt and narrow.

At one point, we crossed this bridge.

Fern Creek is barely a trickle at this time of year.

In the shaded areas, we saw plenty of fungus.

This weird stuff was on the cut-off end of a log. If you look closely, you can see droplets of something…water? Is it sticky like sap? We’ll never know because I didn’t touch it.

If I didn’t know better (and I don’t), I might think these are psychedelic mushrooms. Honestly, I have no idea. There’s another mushroom that grows in the Pacific Northwest known as the “death cap mushroom.” More than once in the time we’ve lived here, folks have mistaken one for the other and ended up poisoning themselves. No messing around. I don’t even want to touch them. The one below was about the size of a quarter.

To its left were these little ones, about the size of dimes.

The woodpeckers were after the tree below, although we didn’t see any woodpeckers on this hike.

Here’s a closer shot of that. 

Also this Douglas squirrel was willing to stand still for a photograph. We’ve seen a lot of these little guys, but this one was the first that would allow me to take his picture.

Below, a huge tree had fallen across the path. We had to bend at the waist to get under it.

Below is another example of trees growing in a straight line, as if they were planted that way. And, as we now know, it’s because they all grew from a single rotting nurse log.

The Douglas firs in this forest were among the biggest trees I’ve ever seen anywhere. And the big leaf maple trees were no slouches either. Most have dropped their leaves by now, but you can see why they’re called “big leaf” maples.

The Douglas firs were named for David Douglas. He was a Scotsman and naturalist who, between 1825 and 1833, collected and catalogued the trees and plants in this area for the Royal Horticultural Society of London. He journeyed through the region by canoe, horse, and foot, often alone. He ventured up the Columbia and Willamette rivers and briefly visited Puget Sound.  He was pictured on one of the informational signs.

The Douglas fir is the predominent coniferous evergreen of Western Washington. Old growth trees can approach 300 feet in height and are wrapped in bark that is 8-10 inches thick. They can live hundreds of years. 

Below his picture was this polished cut off stump. I’m hoping you can read the little placards there.

The tree got its start in 1571 and fell in 2021, when it was 450 years old. Amazing. 

Okay, and we’d finished the hike by that time. Our next stop was the town of Concrete, Washington. It was such an unusual name for a town, and so I wanted to learn more about it. 

Wikipedia tells us that:

The town of Concrete began as a settlement at the northwestern junction of the Baker and Skagit Rivers, known as "Minnehaha." Amasa "Peg-Leg" Everett was one of the earliest settlers. In 1890, the townsite was platted by another settler, Magnus Miller. Shortly thereafter, a post office was established and the town name changed to "Baker." In 1905, a settlement across the Baker River came into being due to the building of the Washington Portland Cement Company and was named "Cement City." After the Superior Portland Cement Company plant was built in Baker in 1908, it was decided to merge the two towns. Inhabitants of the new community settled on the name "Concrete" and the town was so christened and officially incorporated on May 8, 1909.

And this is one of those places where it seems untouched by time. Driving through the main street, it looked like this.

We drove to the end of that street, and then made a U-turn. It appeared to be a thrift store, but I really wanted you to see the expansive mural of the surrounding rivers and mountains.

Heading back the other direction, it looked like this:

We drove beyond the business district into a more residential area. We happened upon this bakery. We were hungry, so why not?

Just look at all these goodies.

We were looking for something relatively healthy to have as a breakfast snack.

We also chose that Foccacia BBQ Chicken Pizza in the middle row on the right below, and we shared it for lunch.

For breakfast we selected these pumpkin cranberry muffins. If you pretend they don’t have any sugar, they’re downright healthy!

They heated up our pizza, and so we sat at a table. Right away, I noticed the coloring tools on the table. Do you think they knew we were coming?

It took about 10 minutes, and it was really good.

And then we were curious about some other parts of the town we’d seen.

The concrete activity seems to be a thing of the past, although I can’t find anything about that. This structure was a part of it, and it is clearly abandoned. In fact, on the left side of the stairs is a little green sign offering the building up for “adoption.”

To its right was this small monument. They had a perfect safety record for the first time in 1933. The last one was in 1961, and there were many years in between.

Behind were these large silo looking things. I know nothing about the manufacture of concrete, and so I can only point my camera at them and tell you what I saw.

With so much land seemingly abandoned of any particular purpose, they’ve built a skate park and bike paths. There was also a frisbee golf course. 

Driving in and out of the town, we crossed this bridge twice.

To the north was this. It’s a bridge and a man-made waterfall.

Well, this we had to see. And so we drove up the hill to have a look.

This seems to be a plant dedicated to the protection of fish.

The informational signs tell us that juvenile fish are captured in traps in Baker Lake and Lake Shannon. From there, they are transported in trucks and released into the Baker River (on the other side of the bridge above) where it drains into the Skagit River. Each spring more than 200,000 juvenile salmon are transported around the dams in this way. Wow. I had no idea. After they are released, they continue their journey down the Skagit River to the Pacific Ocean. From there, they will return to the Baker River as adults. Amazing.

And that was the end of our day. We were back at the RV around 2:00 and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. This morning will be a little weird timing-wise. We have to check out of this park by 11:00 a.m. Then we have just an 88 mile drive to the next place, but we can’t check in there until 2:30. We’re going to have an hour in there that will probably need to be filled somehow. There’s a grocery store in Winthrop, and so we might end up getting some groceries and then just unloading them when we can get checked into the park. Also, I’m still on the hunt for a refrigerator magnet and shot glass from the national park. Maybe I’ll find something along the way.

All-righty then. Time’s a-wasting, and I need to start buttoning things up. Also, I’m gonna have one of those muffins. Have a good day, everyone. Our next hike won’t be until tomorrow, so rest up and get a good night’s sleep tonight.