National Parks In The Fall - Mt Rainier, Glacier, North Cascades

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

Sheila and I just returned from a three national park loop road trip, beginning at Mt Rainier, going to Glacier, and returning through the North Cascades.

 

If you are going to any of these places this fall, go now! The aspen are just turning, and the larch are yellowing. The reds along the road are great and the lodges and cafes are uncrowded. Some early snowfalls have dusted the peaks in white. The air is brisk, and the roads wide open (except Going to the Sun road in Glacier is closed 16-20 miles east of West Glacier so you get to visit the lodge, but not beyond.

 

In most ways this was an old time “traditional” road trip. I wasn’t looking for roadside artifacts, old bridges, long lost alignments, or the best cheeseburger….though we found some of each. We traveled through the small towns and back roads. We were just letting the two lane roads deliver the beauty and surprises of the American West in the fall. I had no plans to make daily reports, and didn’t.

 

Along the way we found the best cheeseburger in America, lovely and inexpensive lakeside resorts with comfortable cabins for a pittance, a real old time antique store, magnificent scenery like nowhere else in the world, friendly people, places it would be fun to live, native wild animals, absolutely charming and unspoiled small towns, and lots of places we would like to revisit..

 

Our route took us from Olympia along part of the National Parks Highway and into the Mt Rainier NP from the west. We went through Yakima, and along the old riverside road into Ellensburg, where we spent the night.

 

From Ellensburg we took the interstate (yuck) to George, Washington, then along the old North Central Highway through Odessa and Spokane. The weather was forecast to change for the worse at Glacier late the next day, so we pressed on to St. Regis, Montana (on the Yellowstone Trail) where we again spent the night, planning to reach Glacier ahead of the storm the next day.

 

The next day we drove to Glacier, just hours before a cold front hit, but in time to enjoy the park in the sunshine. Watching the National Weather Service on WiFi, we turned west to stay out of the rain and snow, and we spent the night in a rustic cabin by a lovely lake north of Libby.

 

The following day we drove through Libby, Montana, stopping in Bonners Ferry, Idaho for a few hours, and spent the night in Newport, Washington. We then traveled across the northern part of Washington State, spending the night in Republic.

 

The next day we went through the spectacular North Cascades National Park. We spent the night in Sedro Wooly.

 

I had been watching the web cams posted here to see when the fall colors developed and the National Weather Service (NOAA) to get a full week of sunny skies….which can be tough in the Northwest in October. We managed both for the most part. We traveled at our leisure, and took as many roads less traveled as possible.

 

For the techies, I brought a small Acer netbook and hooked my Delorme GPS to it, using Delorme’s Topo USA. I therefore had a full size map with my track and location always displayed, and fully recorded. I set the netbook to run with the cover closed, so it would always be ready if I wanted to check location, distances, or consider a route. The combo was less expensive than my handheld GPS, and three times more useful than my auto’s GPS. And if I wanted to, I could use it to get weather reports and accommodation info wherever there was wifi…which was almost everywhere in any town of village.

 

 

 

I’ll report trip highlights soon.

 

Keep the Show on the Road

 

Dave

[DennyG]

A great sounding trip. That whole area is part of the unknown for me. Going to the Sun road is high on my list of to-dos.