After some good friends moved to the Seattle area a year and a half ago, Bob and I started talking about taking a trip. I’ve been to the Pacific Northwest and loved it, but Bob’s never been that far west. It would be a double win–we’d get to spend some time with our friends, and get to explore a new, beautiful state.

So, we checked our calendar, confirmed our friends would be home the week we wanted to go, and bought our plane tickets.

After a day of travel and spending one night in the Seattle area, we headed toward the mountains and North Cascades National Park.

We stopped at the visitors’ center to get the lay of the land, and went to the campground to find a campsite. We drove around the entire campground, and much to our dismay, couldn’t find an open site. Checking the welcome board, we noticed that 3 sites appeared to be vacant. We did another loop of the campground, but didn’t see any vacant sites! On the third loop, we noticed a small trail and a foot bridge right where the campsites should be.

Across this foot bridge, we found the three missing sites, all of which were vacant. Three cheers for poor signage on the campground’s part, and a bit of perseverance on our part! We wouldn’t have to sleep in our car, after all!

Since we had daylight left, we took a short hike up the mountain. Worth every step for the great views.

North Cascades is just a couple of hours from Seattle, and well worth the trip. The road through the park is known as one of the most scenic drives in the U.S. for good reason. Every turn offers something new–a new peak, a new waterfall, a new vista. This park deserves a return trip. Next time we’ll stay longer.

• We went to: North Cascades National Park
• We stayed: Colonial Creek Campground (check out sites 10-13 for walk ins).
• We hiked: Thunder Knob Trail, 3.6 miles

If you’re interested….Isle Royale National Park and 2 days on Orcas Island