North Cascades

7-22-07

If you’ve never been to North Cascades National Park, stop what you’re doing and get out here now. If not the most beautiful place I have ever been, it has to rank among the top two or three. We’re camped tonight (sans all amenities including wifi and satellite radio) in the main National Park campground in an old-growth forest surrounded by gigantic hemlock, fir and spruce trees. There are ferns and mosses everywhere. When you walk in the forest, it’s like walking on a well-padded carpet. The trunk of a huge fallen tree was so covered with mosses and ferns that, but for its shape, you would not recognize it as a tree trunk. If this is not a true rain forest, it can’t be far from it. I'll attach some of these pictures separately.

This morning we had a leisurely breakfast before breaking camp, and Lois gave me a much-needed haircut. We left our campsite in Twisp, WA, and drove a few miles up the road to the Methow Valley United Methodist Church. Methow Valley is a combined congregation of several churches in the area, including Twisp and Winthrop. Both the Twisp and Winthrop churches burned in the 1990s and the congregations combined to form Methow Valley. We had a delightful worship experience with these good people and enjoyed coffee and fellowship after the service.

A few more miles up the road, while driving through the small town of Winthrop, Lois noticed a t-shirt in a shop window with a picture of a Melinda’s Hot Sauce label on the front. I’ve been a great fan of Melinda’s for at least 10 years, so we had to stop and buy one of the t-shirts. I’ll attach a copy of a picture that Lois took of me in my new t-shirt with my new haircut along with my other pictures. You'll see how spiffy I look.

After we left Winthrop, we drove through some of the most beautiful alpine scenery I’ve ever seen, including the namesake of alpine scenery, the German, Austrian and Swiss Alps. Although some of the higher peaks were shrouded in fog and a light rain was falling at times, these only added to the atmosphere and are what one would expect in the Pacific Northwest. We also passed gorgeous lakes and numerous waterfalls that would be worthy of a visit on their own.
At one of the overlooks, I was taking a picture of a dead tree potruding over a canyon. I was interested in the tree because of the moss growing on it. While I was looking through the viewfinder, a beautiful blue bird landed on the dead tree, and I was able to zoom in for what I consider to be one of my best pictures of the trip.

I’ve about run out of superlatives describing the beauty that I’ve seen today. I know Lois is tired of hearing my “oohing” and “aahing”. After all, how many times can you stand to hear someone say, “This is absolutely gorgeous” or words to that effect. But I just can’t keep quiet when confronted with such magnificence. I’m just thankful to God that he has let Lois and me live long enough and provided the resources to enable us to witness this example of the grandeur of His creation.

Tomorrow we’ll complete our transit of North Cascades NP and return to the city to dog sit our “Granddog” Benji. It will be hard to top what we’ve seen today.

More later.