Hike #28: Blue Lake and the North Cascades
July 3 to July 5, 2015
Mileage: 4.4 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 1050 ft.

Somehow I managed to visit all three National Parks in Washington in three consecutive weeks. I planned each of the trips in advance, but separately, and didn’t connect it all until after I’d been to Rainier and before I’d been to Olympic.

The first in the triad was North Cascades National Park, where Eric and I went for part of July fourth weekend. We arrived Thursday evening around 8 and grabbed a campsite at Newhalem Creek, which is a lovely campground and had plenty of spots available at the start of the busy holiday weekend.

Early Friday morning we hiked to Blue Lake. It was a lovely, short, and quiet hike – we were the first ones to the lake.

I found it distinctly difficult to photograph – contrasts of light and shadow on the way up, harsh sunlight at the lake, and a little bit dustier on the trail than I’d like for having my camera out. But it was very pretty, and we ate lunch on the banks and then headed back down.

The day became hot very quickly, and by midafternoon it was too much for us both. After a few hours around the campsite, we went to the banks of Newhalem creek.

I managed a spot with just my feet in the water, where I read most of My Life in France by Julia Child. Highly recommended – it was fantastic. Check out my Goodreads for other books I’ve been into lately.

A wonderful wilderness weekend.