I took a solo trip to the Pacific NW in September with the goal of seeing beautiful turquoise waters and bears. I succeeded with both! North Cascades National Park, Squamish and Whistler were my prime destinations.

I started to write a journal-like report, but have started over. It may be a mix of formats.

September 24 – Nonstop flight to Seattle. Drove to Burlington where I would stay two nights at the Fairfield Inn and Suites. There are not a lot of options in the smaller towns in the western outskirts of the North Cascades Park. Hotel was fine except for a couple of weird guys the first night.

I had stopped in Mt. Vernon to visit the Skagit Valley Co-op hoping to get good snacks, but nothing called my name. They do have a nice garden section outside with fun planters and sculptures. If I were a local, no doubt I’d be going home with some quirky items.

I visited Deception Pass State Park, which is lovely and has a neat bridge that can be crossed by foot or vehicle.

Dinner was at Applebee’s as I had a gift card that had been sitting in my wallet for 5 years as there isn’t one near where I live.

The weather was destined to be disagreeable for much of my time during this trip. Dιjΰ vu from my trip to Ireland in June.

September 25- Awoke to very misty and heavy fog conditions. Snacks for the day were from Joy’s Bakery Restaurant in Sedro-Woolley. This little town has a cute downtown with lots of wood sculptures of bears, cowboys, etc.

The drive into North Cascades Park was marred by poor visibility. I knew I was in a beautiful place, just couldn’t see it! I stopped in the nice visitor’s center in Newhalem. There are rangers, displays and good restrooms. Behind the visitor center, there’s a short trail to an overlook.

My first real trail was Trail of the Cedars. You cross the river and go into the forest. It’s a nice walk under the canopy of very big trees. Surprisingly, I was pretty much alone during my walk.

Next was Ladder Creek Falls. More people were on this trail. Stairs and inclines are present on this trail. There’s a powerstation here and you can go inside for an exhibit and clean restrooms.

The visibility and skies improved greatly as the day progressed. Stops included Diablo Lake, Ross Lake and Gorge Lake. The waters were the gorgeous turquoise I was seeking. I believe it was Diablo’s overlook that had some wild winds.

I did the Blue Lake Trail, which many consider to be easy or moderate. I found it challenging and it took me a lot longer than I expected because I had to catch my breath frequently. The trail is a steady incline over a trail with tree roots and rocks. One has to focus on the footing and has to stop to actually take in the scenery. I had seen on Trip Advisor that many people see mountain goats on this trail, but I had no such luck. They were the main reason I chose this trail over other trails. It seems like morning might be the best time to see them and I was there in the mid afternoon. The lake is indeed beautiful, but I would have chosen to do two extra hikes of a shorter duration in retrospect.

Washington Overlook is great. It was getting late in the day and with shorter daylight hours, I didn’t get to do Rainy Lake or Happy Creek trails since I took too long at Blue Lake. I also didn’t make it to Winthrop. It looks like a cute town for lunch.

It was 8 pm by the time I got back to Burlington so dinner was fast food.

September 26- crummy, wet weather greeted me. I headed to Mt. Baker and there was no visibility on the drive nor at Artist Ridge. There are amazing views on a good day of surrounding mountains. I could see nothing! Driving down, some clouds did lift and I was able to see some stunning glaciers. This area would be magnificent on a day with bright blue skies. It may be pretty typical for these mountains to be enshrouded in clouds and mist earlier in the day and clear out later in the day. I just didn’t have time to find out as I was heading to Canada.

I wanted to do the Bagley Lakes trail, but one of my knees was really aggravated from the descent on the Blue Lakes Trail the day before, so I couldn’t do much. There are a lot of stairs involved to get to some of the trails. It is beautiful here and there was a wedding that took place while I was there.

Onward to Canada! To my surprise, I was told by Canada border control to pull over and I had to go inside for extra questioning. The agent seemed so suspicious of me and it was really weird. I have been told I look like a choir or alter girl and I'm not acquainted with scrutiny. I realized later, discussing with friends, that maybe I was profiled because I had a motorcycle t-shirt on. I have nothing to do with motorcycles and was just wearing a free t-shirt I received from a coworker who has a family member who works for a t-shirt maker who makes shirts for biker rallies. He gave me a leftover shirt. There was nothing bad about the shirt, but maybe that’s what triggered suspicion?? It wasn’t a nice feeling to be the subject of suspicion and I realized that for so many people, they experience that kind of thing all the time.

Traffic through Vancouver was awful and the rain started there. I was going to visit Lynn Canyon but lost my inspiration with the unpleasant weather. The Sea to Sky Highway was beautiful and I can imagine how amazing it is in good weather with complete visibility.

I stayed in Squamish for three nights at the August Jack Motor Inn. Very basic and not cheap, but nothing is cheap anymore. It’s right in town, convenient for restaurants and shops. I was starving, so I had pizza at the Howe Sound Brew Pub. Food was meh but the service was friendly. I walked the main street afterwards and then hopped in the car to drive some dirt roads in pursuit of bear sightings. No luck!

Deception Pass

Sedro-Woolley


Visitor Center at Newhalem



Trail of Cedars



Ladder Creek Falls trail

Ross Lake

Blue Lake

Blue Lake

The fog at Artist Ridge!

Bagley Lake


Diablo Lake

Hi Therese

Your photos are phenomenal. The sheer amount of beauty in the North American West never ceases to amaze me. I feel lucky to have had several trips to the region, but at the same time feel I have barely scratched the surface of all the varied landscapes. And I’d never even heard of many of the places you provided photos of.

Thanks for the trip report! Daniel

I agree with Daniel! Your photos are phenomenal!

We visited the North Cascades NP in the 70’s! I know, a long time ago! We hiked in and pitched our tent. Woke up to about 6 inches of snow! This was late June/early July. We continued our hike, trudging through the snow, because our destination was a wildflower meadow. We thought that maybe the sun would melt the snow. But we were wrong! Got to the meadow and the flowers were buried in snow! So we hiked back to our car. I think that was all we saw of the north Cascades because of the snow.

We also visited Vancouver and Victoria on that trip. Two beautiful but very different cities.

I get that you are/were inspired to guess whether/that you were the target of suspicion for any reason.

But it probably is NOT the case.


I'm reminded of some hottie I knew who once complained about somebody using one of those pens to see if she were passing counterfeit currency, and her using the phrase: "do I look like a counterfeiter?"

The truth, surely in her case, was that in order to check the bills of people who look like counterfeiters, we need to justify it by (scrutinizing the bills of a few hotties).

Nobody knows what a counterfeiter looks like, so there's that, too.


I am guessing that your stated purpose for the visit was more likely to be something that inspires a secondary inspection than whatever random t-shirt you might have been wearing.

While your purpose looks great in print here on a travel website, it probably didn't sound as cut-and-dried when offered by someone who'd never been to the targeted spots before, and who just came out of the Washington State hinterlands as well.


I have crossed the WA-BC border hundreds of times, and the only time I've ever been searched by a dog, was when I had my 89yo grandmother with me for a day trip. It was purely random, and I've never had a true border problem... though there WAS that one border guard who claimed that I needed to have Power of Attorney rights from my Canadian friend for whom I was bringing 2 to 4 purchased tubes of (very legal, just not sold in Canada) toothpaste (per request).

Anyway, you probably shouldn't give it a second thought...

TravelTherese, thank you for the report and the beautiful pictures! My son and I went to Seattle / Olympic NP and Mt Rainier this past summer. I had hoped to visit the Northern cascades but just couldn't wrap my head around how to visit / not enough time etc etc. I have given up hope to visit but now reading your TR I'm going to have to reconsider !