After enjoying a few days traveling through Washington, we finally arrived at North Cascades National Park. Neither of us had actually heard of it before. We found it in a book we have about all the National Parks and a number of people we met in Montana and Washington highly recommended it. We were not really sure what to expect but we were blown away by how beautiful it was.

The view of the mountains was breathtaking as we drove through the park. Our first stop was the Ross Lake Overlook. The lake is a beautiful turquoise color that comes from light reflecting off the glacial silt in the water. Words can’t really describe how gorgeous it was.

Our next stop was a hike at Gorge Overlook. The metal walkway across the deep canyon was a bit scary as you could see through it to the depths below. After crossing the walkway, the hike itself was only about a mile round trip and very easy. The views at the end of the trail were more of that lovely blue-green water.

We decided we could not miss the opportunity to kayak in such a beautiful place so we found a campsite in the park so we would not be stuck searching for a place later that evening. We were lucky to find a nice spot at Newhalem Campground. Some campers had left because the weather was so unusually hot. We enjoyed chatting with some fellow campers who had just returned from a trip to Alaska. Alaska sounds amazing whenever people tell us about it, but we will definitely have to wait until it is summer again before we plan a visit there. We set up camp and relaxed in the shade for a while waiting for the day to cool down a bit before going kayaking.

We chose Diablo Lake as it was not too far from our campsite and was the same stunning color as Ross Lake. Our kayak is an inflatable  2 seater Sea Eagle so it takes a bit of time and effort to get it set up but it is always worth it once we are out on the water. This time was no different. It was nice and cool out on the lake and we enjoyed the beautiful views of the mountains all around us. We passed by some boat in only campsites that looked really nice. We have not tried one of those yet but it is on our list of things to do. We paddled a few miles soaking it all in before turning around and heading back to shore as the sun was setting. By the time we deflated and packed up the kayak, it was dark, so we were very glad we already had our home for the night set up. We headed back to camp looking forward to getting into our cozy tent.