8/22/08-9/08/08 Concrete, WA (Cascade Nat. Park)

 We arrived in Concrete, WA on Aug. 22. We stayed in a Thousand Trails campground, Grandy Creek Resort. I think we enjoyed staying at this campground the best because it was so close to so much beauty and adventure. To my TT friends, this is a very nice campground with an older, but clean clubhouse. You can see the Cascade Mountains from some areas in the campground. The staff was very friendly and helpful. This campground was very close to the Cascade Pass, with many beautiful hikes. There is a rails to trails trail there also that we rode our bikes on for 25 miles. We drove on the Cascade Pass Hwy.(HWY.20) one day to Ross Dam. This drive had awesome views of the Cascades and the Skagit River. We went on 3 different hikes. The first hike was the Park Butte Hiking Trail. After a couple of miles we came to a creek that the bridge had been washed out. There was not a good place to cross, as the water was rushing really fast from recent rain, so we climbed up the rocks by the creek looking for a place to cross. After an hour we decided to have our lunch. We did see some adventurous guys cross by walking on a long fallen slippery tree to the other side. We decided it looked like walking a tightrope and we didn’t feel like falling in the icy water and breaking our necks on all the rocks, so we turned back. Our next hike was the Cascade Pass Trail (7.4 mi. roundtrip). Each trail we go on we decide it was our best hike, so of course this was our new best hike! Even the parking lot had great views. Part of the hike was in the forest, but most of the hike was in the open. You could see snow topped mountains with glaciers across the valley. The beauty was indescribable. Even the pictures do not do it justice. You could hear the rumble of avalanches across the valley. We were not lucky enough to see one. We crossed a huge rockslide. We knew there was a possibility of rain that day, but we forgot our ponchos. I decided we would take our umbrellas. We always have lunch at the top of the mountains. Right after we got up there it started raining, so we sat down, got out our sandwiches and umbrellas and had lunch. Couldn' break tradition!  We got some funny looks from the seasoned hikers with their backpacks and nice, expensive rain ponchos, but we didn’t get wet! Our next hike was the Sauk Mountain Hiking Trail (4.2 mi. roundtrip). This was our new best hiking trail! This trail made me a little nervous. It was very narrow and steep with several switchbacks through a wildflower meadow and a patch of snow. If you fell there was nothing to stop you from falling 5000’ to the bottom. You had a panoramic view of the Skagit River Valley during the entire hike, which was beautiful, but it was so vast it made my legs quiver. The view at the top was worth it though, with a 360 degree view of the valley, Skagit River, Mt. Baker, Puget Sound & the San Juan Islands (60 or 70 miles away). Our last hike in this area was the Scott Paul/Park Butte Trail (8.5 miles roundtrip). This was the most diverse hike we’ve been on. It was a beautiful hike with a long uphill hike through a forest, wildflower meadows, along a high ridge with views of Mt. Baker and the Cascades, Mt. Ranier (way in the distance to the south), rushing creeks, snow, huge boulders and rock slides. We had to cross a rushing creek on a swinging bridge. When we came to the Park Butte section of the trail, we were able to cross the creek this time as it hadn’t rained for a few days. It's a good thing we could cross because we had already hiked 6 miles, so turning back was out of the question.  We might have even tried the fallen tree as a last resort!  We were lucky to have clear and sunny days for our hikes, so you could see forever. This is a beautiful area of Washington state!