Thunderknob and Ladder Creek Falls

On our last full day at North Cascades, we decided to get in a couple of hikes.  The Thunderknob trailhead starts between two campsites (which seemed a little wierd) at Colonial Campground about 10 miles east of Newhalem where we were camped.

 

The hike begins with crossing over two log bridges...

 

and then a dry creek bed.

 

Then we entered the forest where it was nice and cool.

The forest thinned out some...

 

and we began climbing...

 

a series of switchbacks.

We could peek out between the trees and see Colonial Peak (elev. 7,772 ft.).

Then, we continued climbing...

up more switchbacks...

 

We came upon this little marshy pond...

...and continued heading up to Thunderknob.

After a 635 ft. climb over 1.8 miles, we reached the top.  We could see Davis Peak to the west and McMillan Spires on further back ...

 

...and Hwy 20 way down below.

 

This is Davis Peak (elevation 7,054 ft.):

And these are McMillan Spires (elevation 8,000-8,040 ft):

We could also see the turquoise green Diablo Lake.

From other lookouts at the top, we now see Pyramid Peak (elevation 7,182 ft.)

and also had a better view of Colonial Peak which we had "peeked at" through the trees on the way up.

Way off to the south, we could just barely see Ruby Mountain (elevation 7,408 ft).

 

From a bench where we rested for a little while, we could see Jack Mountain (elevation 9,066 ft) to the east.

On the way back down, I noticed this little speck in the glacier at the top of Colonial Peak.  Was it Sasquatch?  (Double-click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Nope, just a tree (or tree top).

I counted 23 switchbacks on the way back down the trail.  The switchbacks definitely made the 635 foot elevation climb up and back down much easier. 

On the way back from the Thunderknob trail, we stopped in Newhalem again because we wanted to see the Ladder Creek Falls located behind the Gorge Creek Powerhouse.

The powerhouse for the Gorge Dam is located a couple of miles downstream from the dam.  The reason why is that the water from the dam is diverted through a 20' tunnel to the powerhouse to create the velocity needed for the turbines in the powerhouse to work.    We crossed this suspension bridge...

over the Skagit River.

Ladder Creek Falls is a three-tiered waterfalls with a total height of 108 feet.  J. D. Ross, the "father of Seattle City Lights" developed the trail to the falls and the surrounding gardens.  A lot of the gardens are still maintained as are parts of the trail.

The falls are fed by Ladder Creek Glacier and would be even bigger and stronger except that a large part of the falls are diverted into the Gorge Powerhouse.  The waterfalls and surroundings are beautiful.

We returned later to see the falls again because they are illuminated at night with multi-colored lights.

 

 

 

The only disappointing part of the day is that it rained that evening and we did not get to have our last campfire at Newhalem Campground.   :(

Newhalem and more BIG trees

While waiting on the generator to charge the batteries, we looked at the map trying to decide where we would go before meeting Crystal and Grant in Randle, Washington, next week.  A couple that Chuck talked to in the campground on Sunday had told him they had been to Mount Baker and said it was beautiful. 

I started checking places to stay and with it being a weekend I had trouble finding a site again.  I finally found a KOA close to where we first turned off I-5.  From there, Mount Baker is about 70 miles away so it should make for a nice day trip. 

After lunch, we took a short hike through the campground to Newhalem.  We started seeing these big cedar and Douglas fir trees again...

 

...and crossed crystal-clear Newhalem Creek.

We next began the part of the hike that included North Cascade's own "Trail of the Cedars."  This tree was too big for Chuck to hug...  :)

...and was so big I could have hidden inside of it.

 

With the stream nearby all the ferns and moss everywhere, we felt more like we were hiking through a jungle rather than a forest.

 

Then, we saw this really BIG cedar tree.  At first we thought it was 2 or 3 trees, but when we got closer we realized it was one big tree at the base.

I mean it was REALLY, REALLY BIG.

These trees were larger than the cedar trees we saw on the "Trail of the Cedars" we hiked at Glacier.

The trail turned off and followed Skagit River.

We came to a big cedar that had fallen and had been cut to make way for the hiking trail.  It would take a very long time to count all the rings on this tree to see how old it was.

This is the tree stump that was remaining.  Pretty big, huh?

There were also several Douglas fir trees which are the ones that can be over a thousand years old.  You can recognize these trees by their very deep bark.

Then we crossed the bridge over the Skagit River into Newhalem.

Newhalem is a very small community with only about 20 or so houses.  The people who live in the houses work for Seattle City Lights, the electric company that owns and controls the dams along the Skagit River.  This train was purchased for $7,500 in the early 1900's and was used for moving supplies, equipment and people for construction of the dams.  Old Train #6 is what it was called.

What was really funny is that when we were crossing the bridge, we met a couple from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.  We chatted with them for a few minutes.  Then, when we walked into the country store in Newhalem, we met a couple from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  This couple were near the end of their two month biking vacation.  They had started in Washington, DC, and were biking to Seattle on a tandem bike and then flying back home to Nashville.  Small world, isn't it?