First Camping of the Year 2018 @ North Cascades

How about getting out of home, going out where you can be yourself, forget all the problems and finally get completely lost in the lap of nature?, sounds great right!!!.

I wanted a pause in my daily routine life and relax and enjoy for sometime. For me travelling is the only thing that refreshes my body and mind and add zest to my life. Summer had already started so me and my husband decided to do camping and spend some time in the woods. We had already done several camping's last year and this year we thought we will begin it at North Cascades. We had visited North Cascades once and had decided that we should do camping here because it is a very scenic place and we were charmed by the large mountain ranges and greenish Diablo and Ross lake.

Diablo Lake

It was Saturday and we were ready at 8.30 after having breakfast and preparing lunch for that day. The car also had to be fed because we had to drive nearly 600 miles round trip from our home. After filling the fuel I started driving in I5 Interstate highway towards north. It was the first long trip I was driving and I was surprised (actually shocked!) because my husband let me drive. I was very happy because it was my dream to take my husband for a long drive where I will be driving and he will be enjoying in the passenger seat. After almost one hour we stopped at a rest area. It was very warm (37-39 degree Celsius)outside.

We reached North Cascades in the afternoon and stopped at the Visitor Center to inquire about the availability of the campgrounds. All campgrounds will be reserved 4-5 months prior and only option we were left with was walk in campgrounds. They gave the details of some campgrounds but we forgot to take map from them. Hoping we will get one site we entered the Colonial Creek Campground (one of the best site in North Cascades). But for our bad luck all the campsites were full and we got to know that most of the walk in campgrounds will be full by Friday or Saturday early morning. The guard at the campground then told us to check for campground further on the way to city called Winthrop. She told that she had camped at one of the site there and there were very few people camping there. So we started driving towards Winthrop and the first campground we got on the way was Lone Fir. We went there and checked and for our luck there were 2-3 sites available. We quickly paid and reserved one of the site there. It was 12.30. The site was very good and we had a good view of the mountains from there. The camp had decent washroom facilities. We put our tent at our reserved site and relaxed for some time enjoying the view.

Our Campsite

We had lunch at a nearby picnic area and then drove to Washington pass overlook which we had missed during the first visit. We were spell bound seeing the view. Wherever we turned we could only see the huge mountain ranges in front of us. So Strong and still. As i was looking at them I got a feel deep inside as if they were passing their strength to me. Large roads crawled in between the mountains. There was a small trail and there were 2-3 scenic points. We walked to the end of the trail, sat there for a few minutes and got back to the car. It was 4 pm.

Washington Pass Overlook

Then we again headed towards Colonial Creek campground as there was a nice view of Diablo Lake from the campground. At 5 pm we reached there and sat at the lake side enjoying the view. There were giant mountain ranges and beneath them the lake flowed. After half an hour we started towards our campsite. When we reached the campsite there were heavy thunderstorms and was raining lightly. We waited in our car till it stopped raining. There was no mobile network and electricity. No contact with the entire world. It was just us and the nature. After an hour it stopped raining and we went on looking for some dry woods for campfire. We put the campfire and by the time we were also very hungry. We had brought some vegetables to grill and i prepared marinade while my husband was busy in lighting the fire. Then we enjoyed our grilled vegetables and we were full just eating that.

Camping

The noticeboard in the campground had mentioned that there are bears in the forest and might get attracted by the food smell. We did not want to become food to those bears so as soon as we finished our dinner we quickly cleaned and packed everything. The dustbins at the campground were also safely locked. As we were about to go to sleep the guard came and warned us about the forest fire nearby. She told us that we may need to vacate if the forest fire spreads till our campsite. She also assured us that she will be staying there and will inform if anything worst happens. I was very scared hearing about the forest fire and hoping nothing will happen we went to sleep. It was very cold and and we were equipped with only one blanket and a comforter with us. We had forgot to check the weather while packing. I also got a light body ache because of the stones underneath the tent and my husband could not sleep because of cold weather.

Next day morning we got up at 7.30, became fresh and we got an opportunity to start our day by looking at the beautiful sunrise at the mountain range. We hadn't planned for this but we were lucky. After a while we saw the helicopters flying around, they had come for inspection since there was forest fire the previous day. I guess everything was good and nothing serious happened because we didn't get any warning after that. We had our breakfast and planned to drive towards Lake Chelan. Lake Chelan is one more scenic place and it was 3 hours from our campsite. We started driving towards it and and took a break in Winthrop city. The city was beautiful and different because the city had adopted American Old West design.

Streets of Winthrop

This was the 4th time we were visiting Lake Chelan. We had been there at all the seasons and it was a coincidence that we visited this place on same month and same week for 3 times (and once in winter).We took a break at Starbucks near Lake Chelan. It was 12.45 pm when we reached near the lake and it was very sunny (40 degree Celsius) and we could not bear that. We felt as if we were in a desert. Camping and water activities are the main attractions here and we had done both during our previous visits. It was a wonderful experience. However this time it was very dry, so we just sat near the lake in the shade for half an hour, ate cucumber and carrots and walked back to the car.

Lake Chelan

It was 2 pm and we went to a nearby pizza shop, ate pizza and started driving towards home.

It was truly a reviving trip!.