Cascade Loop Road Trip: Day 5

Friday, July 31, 2026

Day 5

We grabbed some complimentary ice bags provided by the hotel (a nice gesture seeing as our mini fridge did not have any freezer portion in which to refreeze our ice packs) and packed up our cooler and left Leavenworth behind this morning. 





First we drove to Snoqualmie Falls because Bryan had seen online that we could get one of the little collectible tokens there. They didn’t have any. But having a waterfall at your potty break seems better than not. So we won’t complain. The gal at the gift shop desk did say they may be ordering some in soon, because “lots of people have been asking about them.”  So we are apparently not the only ones taking side quests just to get these little tokens. 



I decided it was time for chicken teriyaki before we drive into the park. Because it sounds like they may not have very many dairy free options at the Sunrise Day Lodge where we will be stopping first. We were served large portions of chicken and rice - and thought (not for the first time when visiting a teriyaki place) that we should have split one meal. Ah well. We will not be dependent on National Park snacks for sustenance. 



We drove to the park, and pulled over at a viewpoint. Seeing other people looking with interest in a particular direction, we approached and asked “What do we see?” And they pointed out a bear. One woman even handed over her binoculars (ours were in the car) for me to get a better look. Fun! 



We drove from there to the Sunrise Day Lodge. The views of the mountain were really impressive!  I’d never seen Mt. Rainier up this close. 


Despite the signs saying that Sunrise was full and encouraging people to explore other parts of the park, we had no waiting to get in, and even got princess parking right in front of the lodge. 



We checked out the gift shop and found a couple tokens to add to our collection.  Next I played a “guess the skull” game a ranger had set up on a table along the walkway. I correctly matched all the photos of animals to their skulls and won little buttons for Bryan and I. 



Then we went over to the visitor center and spoke to a ranger who helped us plan our activity for this afternoon and tomorrow morning. She also brought out a secret stamp for us when we were stamping our passport book, (one that had been designed by another Ranger that works at the park) so that was fun.  




We got our hiking shoes on, put on some sunscreen, put on hats, and threw some snacks and water in the backpack and started our hike. We hiked through some trees and saw a deer that startled and ran across the trail. Then we continued upward to the meadow. There were wildflowers and butterflies. However, many of the flowers looked like they had been dried out by the hot sun.  Pretty soon I was overheated as I climbed. Clouds drifted over the mountain, making the view less clear. 












We made it to one lake, and then up to another. There, we saw a bear and its cub at a distance. I was elated to finally be seeing some bear after being warned all summer that I might. 


The last portion of the trail, on the ridge above the lodge, had beautiful views out over other mountains in the cascades. Bryan even thought he could make out Washington Pass where we had been earlier in this trip. 




We got back to the cruck and had some cold drinks and cranked up the AC. We drove to our campsite, noting areas where we will want to come back to tomorrow. On this side of the mountain the view was stunning. The mountain is so big!  Especially from this close! 





We set up camp and enjoyed some tacos. Then I worked on the Junior Ranger booklet until it was time to go to the evening Ranger program over at the camp amphitheater. It was a Twilight Zone themed presentation. The Ranger had gone all out with sound effects and background music. But the pacing of the presentation was very slow. Click to the next slide. Very slow. And the topics were very scattered, so it was hard to follow what was going on. We left at 55 minutes in to his 45 minute presentation and went back to our tent to sleep. 



It is nearing 10:00 and we want to be up early to go get a parking spot at one of the most popular trailheads. 


Good night! 



Keep Traveling with the Schmidts in Day 6

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 11: Rocky Mountains National Park

Image
Another North American Road Trip Day 11 Monday, June 29th We woke up this morning and had breakfast at the hotel. We got the cruck loaded back up, and drove to Rocky Mountains National Park. Only, we weren’t able to enter right away. Our camp reservation got us into the park without a timed entry reservation, but not until 1 PM. We had three hours to kill.  We started in the Fall River Visitor Center. (Thank goodness it was on the outside of the park!) We did all the normal things we enjoy. Shopping around. Getting the three oval stickers, getting the little metal token, stamping our books, getting recommendations from the ranger of what to do today.  Then Desmond asked for a junior ranger book and hit the jackpot. Not only did they have a junior ranger program, they also had a night sky and angler packet to earn a patch and badge. We were informed that in this park the badges are on the honor system so that families don’t have to circle back to a visitor center. So after aski...
Read more

Day 10: Meow Wolf

Image
    Another North American Road Trip Day 10: Sunday, June 28th   Today we woke at a leisurely pace, had breakfast at the hotel, and I made us up a lunch of PB&Js.  I used a hand broom and dust pan to sweep as much of the Great Dunes out of our vehicle as possible. So. Much. Sand. Everywhere. Ha!     Meanwhile, Bryan and Desmond repacked our things so we could leave.  We checked out of the hotel shortly before our check out time.  We drove to a Target and restocked on fizzy waters and got Bryan a new pair of sunglasses. Also, we found Desmond some new pants of the kind he likes. Which is great, because the new ones I had bought him before the trip had been miss-delivered and so the ones he had were getting pretty tight.    I found some vitamins and face sunscreen to replace what I’d run out of in the last 9 days.  Then we drove across Denver to Meow Wolf. For those that followed along on our 8 week road trip - you may rememb...
Read more

Day 9 - Great Dunes National Park

Image
    Another North American Road Trip Day 9:  Saturday, June 27th This morning we took our time around camp. We didn’t really have anywhere to be until the Visitor Center opened at 9AM.  The setting of our campsite is quite pretty. There are rolling hills and the dunes out to the side.  When we were at the Visitor’s Center, Desmond asked about sledding down the dunes. We learned that boards and sleds were available to rent just outside the park. So we took a ten minute drive to rent some recreation equipment. 😄 Then we re-entered the park, and headed over to the dunes. I was just happy that the plan wasn’t a hike across the sand. At least not one without a purpose. We lugged the sled, sand board, and a lot of water over to the first dune. Desmond took off his shoes, donned his swim goggles, and sand boarded down the dune.  The wind was whipping the sand in our faces as we hiked back up the dunes and sledded down. We spent about an hour out on the sand. Then...
Read more