North Cascades Highway

On July 25th we traveled to the Spokane area to bring our handicapped son back to the facility where he lives.  He had been home for a few days to visit with family who were in town for a wedding.  We traveled the northernmost route, taking the North Cascades Highway (Hwy. 20) through North Cascades National Park.

My son-in-law and daughter and their daughter were along and he is an avid photographer as well. We took a lot of time, enjoying the scenery and stopping often to take pictures of the flowers, the waterfalls and the mountains:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_n_rose/.

Skagit River

We stopped for the first time at the town of Concrete where we took some photos of the old concrete storage towers along the highway.  Further on we stopped in Newhalem where we photographed the old train engine there and our little granddaughter enjoying some time out of the car.

Concrete

Number 6

Kailyn

Diablo Dam

Most of the waterfalls were not named and some of the time exposures were of the Skagit River itself.  We had to stop several times for construction and used the opportunity to photograph some wildflowers, an unidentified Lupine, some Penstemons and several bog orchids.

The Slender Bog Orchis (Platanthera stricta) was everywhere and there were several places where the Bog Candles (Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata) were growing profusely.  All-in-all we took nearly ten hours to make what is normally about a seven hour trip.

The day was cloudy and we had to contend with rain, but the mist and clouds did give some opportunity for some mood shots of the mountains.  We had better weather only when we left the mountain behind and got into the more open and drier areas of Eastern Washington.

Grand Coulee Dam

Creston, Washington (nearly a ghost town)