NORTH CASCADES

For my birthday, we left today to drive the Cascades Loop.  We went up Highway 9 instead of I-5 and saw some places we'd never seen.   At Arlington, Waze had us turn off onto Highway 530 which took us through Oso, where we'd never been.

Finally, onto Highway 20, we stopped to stretch our legs at a short walk out to a lookout over the High Gorge Dam.

We continued onto Newhalem, where we stopped at the National Forest Visitors Center.  We bought some souveniers and got our passport stamped.  We talked to a Ranger to confirm that our choice for a hike was a good idea and off we went to the trailhead of Thunder Knob, a four mile roundtrip hike with an elevation gain of at least 400 feet.  At the top was a great view of Lake Diablo.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Once at the top we sat and ate our lunch.  Darrell wandered about taking pictures while I sat and sketched.  It was wonderful.

Afterwards, we continued east, with a short stop where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the highway.  I wanted to say I'd hiked the PCT, but there was too much snow (!), so I just took a picture of the sign.

We spent the night in Winthrop at a cute little place called the Bunkhouse Inn.  We brought homemade spaghetti.  We heated it in the microwave and ate sitting on a picnic table out front.  

It had a great open shower with nice pressure and very hot water.  The furniture was rustic and handmade.  It was really nice and just what we needed.