North Cascades National Park by Motorcycle
This post is part of a series where we visit many of our beautiful national parks.
Like so many of our national parks, North Cascades is a natural wonder. This is a great place for hikers and campers. There is very little road access in the park as the terrain is so vertical and rugged. With many peaks near 10,000 ft and deep valleys this is a very dramatic place to visit.
We were on a motorcycle trip from our home in Minnesota when we visited North Cascades. Our route on this trip was the northern tier of states with stops in several national parks. We eventually made it to the Olympic Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean before heading south along the Pacific Coast and then back home.
Due to work commitments we had to park the bikes in Spokane for a few days while still westbound. That’s the way it is sometimes when you travel by motorcycle. It is a wonderful was to see the country. You are outside in the sights and well, sometimes you get to smell the smells if you know what I mean. Sometimes mother nature is not so nice either.
Taking a motorcycle on a long cross country trip requires patience sometimes. Plan B and C often come into play for any number of reasons. This was our second attempt to visit North Cascades. The first time we rode out that way there were some nasty forest fires and the SR20 was closed. That pretty much shut down our plan for visiting.
We overnighted in Winthrop, WA and rode west on SR20 into the park. Beautiful peaks and valleys and an amazingly clear day to ride greeted us. I had flown over this area so many times I was really looking forward to visiting from the ground level.
