North Cascades National Park

North Cascades National Park had the makings of a bust. It was our last park before crossing the border, headed for Alaska. I'd be lying if I said the eight Alaska parks weren't on my mind. We were also told by a man we met a few weeks ago that the drivable part of the park was a single road through the middle with a few pullouts. That didn't sound super enticing.

Visiting a park is normally the highlight of my week, but I was having a hard time hyping myself up for this one. And while it did start slow, we ended this visit with one of our all time favorite experiences in a national park. Kind of. I'll get to that shortly.

The drive to the park was beautiful. We were entering the northern part of the Cascade range (hence the park's name). Our campground was about an hour away from the park, and we couldn't see the mountains from there, so it helped build the anticipation as we started seeing them in the distance while driving.

Ever since they've learned that these mountain parks come with snow, the kids (especially Jordan) are always asking if they will get to play in any, so it was encouraging to see pockets of snow at some of the higher elevations. Would we be able to get there? I had no idea, but I wasn't confident given what I knew of the park (single road through and all).

We started at the visitors center as we usually do. We watched a few short films on the area and got some advice from rangers about what was open and where we should focus our time. We learned that there was snow above 5,500', but we weren't yet sure we'd be able to get to it.

Our first stop was at a hydroelectric power station. The Skagit River (the 'g' is pronounced like a 'j') flows through it, and it is dammed in three areas, all within the park. This is a bit odd as most national parks are minimally impacted by human activity. A small settlement or two isn't out of the ordinary, but we had never encountered a dam within a park, let alone three.

The power station was neat -- I enjoy places like that -- but not really in national park kind of way. It was just a single self-guided room with exhibits overlooking the four generators. The kids were good sports; they pretended to read some of the exhibits, and they enjoyed playing with the crank that demonstrated how power is generated by lighting a small bulb when turned. But we didn't come to the park to learn about power generation, so we moved on before too long.

After a pleasant lunch down the street from a softball game (another national park first), we headed back to the visitors center so the kids could turn in their junior ranger books.

It was now mid afternoon, and we still hadn't really experienced the park. We had a decision to make. Would we drive the entirety of the single road within the park (we were barely into the park proper at this point), headed for some trails at the end, or would we turn back and hit a trail before the park (that technically enters the park partway through)?

We decided we wanted to see as much of the park as we could, so we chose to drive through.

On the way, we stopped to see a waterfall as well as for a short walk (it was paved, so "hike" wouldn't be entirely accurate) at a mountain pass with some beautiful views. But our real destination was Maple Pass Trail.

Why? Two reasons. First, because it was listed on a board in the visitors center as having snow. Second, because I read reviews of it on AllTrails, and multiple people had posted within the past two days that the trail is completely covered in snow after 2.5 miles, to the point where it's pretty much impossible to navigate.

We knew we could do 2.5 miles, so that was all we needed to hear.

We had packed all of the kids' snow gear, and they all chose to wear it for the hike (keep in mind that it's about 70 degrees and very much not snowy at the start). We were getting a late start, so we knew we had to hustle if the kids were to have any time to play in the snow that we hoped to find.

The hike started through the forest, but we eventually started to get views of a mountain lake (the full hike, which we weren't going to do, went completely around the lake). The lake was a few hundred feet down in a bowl with three sides closed in, and there were waterfalls flowing into it from all around. The rim of the bowl was still covered in snow, so there was ample melt feeding it. It was beautiful.

At one clearing, we watched marmots play off in the distance.

As promised by the reviewers on AllTrails, we reached snow after 2.5 miles. And did we ever! Right before getting there, we ran into a hiker that had passed us earlier and turned back. She asked if we knew the way because she could no longer find the trail. That was a good sign!

The open area suitable for play was down in a meadow, so the kids glissaded (slid on their butts) down to it. They played for 30 minutes or so before we had to turn back to beat the setting sun. They had a blast, as always.

We jointly decided this was one of our favorite trails at a national park. The views were beautiful, and the payoff was well worth it (so say the kids). So why did I say "kind of" at the top? Because this trail wasn't technically in the national park. It was in the bordering national forest. Close enough!