Vagabond Tales- Where There’s Smoke…There’s Fire

September 8, 2022 Rockport Washington Howard Miller Steel Head Park. Site 9

We set out early this morning for North Cascades National Park. The first part of our day was perfect minus a bit of smoke hanging in the air. By 1:30 in the afternoon and a bit higher elevation…the whole picture had changed.

We always love to hear more about each National park by watching the video in the visitor’s center before we head out. This one was a bit different…good but we only leaned one thing about North Cascades. They just recently released 80 Fishers back into the park. You can see one being released in the picture above. They are medium sized carnivores, about the size of our 4 grand cats and they have released 80 in each of Washington’s National parks! They have been on the endangered list.
This trail is right behind the visitor’s center and
just a few steps to see Sterling Monroe’s favorite view.
I love a boardwalk trail!
As you can see, it was a bit hazy with the smoke at this time in the morning.
This was a very nice interpretive trail along the Skagit River.
Trail of the Cedars
Suspension bridge over the Skagit! Note the mountain of burned trees in the background.
Lichen and moss covers everything on this trail.
I was not familiar with this plant. The thorns are many and sharp.
A red cedar tree.
The doors in our home are all made of western red cedar.
The Skagit River water always looks like a beautiful, unexpected turquoise. They say it is from the silt in the run-off they get every spring from snow melt.
We had heard great things about a hike to the Rainy Pass where you pass several falls on your hike. It was 30 minutes away and we were up for it. But the farther we drove the smokier it became.
By the time we reached our destination…it was even difficult to breath when we got out of the car.
There is a mountain behind those trees.
We met a gentleman , who had just finished the hike. He said it was a great hike but he couldn’t see any of the falls or scenery…just the trail. And he was doing a bit of coughing. We looked at each other and said, “Forget it!” I couldn’t see exerting ourselves and breathing in that smoke. We would be coughing like him. The winds are blowing tonight, which doesn’t bode well for the fires so…we may leave this area early. We had another day here but the smoke is just too much!
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Vagabond Tales

10 thoughts on “Vagabond Tales- Where There’s Smoke…There’s Fire”

    1. Yes, this hike was only a couple miles but what is the point if you cannot see anything. With the wind tonight the smoke is coming down to where we are camped! We hope to be out of here tomorrow!

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  2. Smart decision not to hike in all that smoke! Hope you get out before it gets bad where you are camped. Stay safe, Friends!❤️🙏

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    1. I was surprised when I downloaded the pictures from yesterday how yellow the sky looks when we got to Rainy Pass! I was glad we didn’t do it either! I have a bit of a cough even at that!

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  3. Looks like you’ve encountered more of the Northwest heat and fires than anticipated. Time to touch base in Montana and head for East Tennessee where temperatures this week are going to be in the 70s.

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  4. Have you had sights of Mt. Baker. When we lived in Vancouver we enjoyed sights of Mt. Baker from almost everywhere.

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