North Cascades, Stehekin, Yellowstone

 We had a grand vacation going to see North Cascades National Park and catching a little section of Yellowstone that we hadn't seen before because of roads closed for construction.  It was so wonderful!  We drove mostly backroads to see the scenery and lessen the traffic and that was great too!  We left on Monday, July 1st and drove via Ely, Elko and other small towns and made it to Boise, Idaho the first night.  We stayed at the Inn America motel there and it was pretty nice.  Along the way there we went through a small town area in Ruby Valley and there was a cattle drive going down the road.  The head cowboy took his horse ahead of us and opened up the herd so we could drive through instead of just following them slowly for a long ways.  It was fun.  In Boise we ate at a Burger King that took so long.  Then that evening we walked through a beautiful park with trails and a nature center along the Boise River.  It was a lovely evening.  

Tuesday, July 2nd, was another long driving day, but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, stopping in at Leavenworth, Washington, driving through a beautiful canyon.  Our destination for that night was Chelan, Washington.  We had a dinner at a good Mexican restaurant and found another wonderful walk around Chelan Lake.  We stayed at the Apple Inn Motel, which was very nice, for the next two nights.  

Wednesday, July 3rd, we got up and boarded a ferry boat, the Lady Liberty, for a 50-mile boat ride up to Stehekin, a little town you can only reach via boat or hike, that borders North Cascades National Park.  When we arrived there we got on a bus with no top and took a great tour of the area.  We stopped at the best bakery along the way, twice.  The first time we had the most delicious pastries.  The next time we had lunch.  We went clear up to Highbridge, which boarders North Cascades and also got to set foot on the Pacific Crest Trail there.  Along the tour we also took a hike to Rainbow Falls and visited a historic one-room schoolhouse.  They still do a one-room school in Stehekin, but they have a new building.  We also stopped in at an historic apple orchard/ranch and an organic garden as well.   It was a great boat ride (I didn't get sick at all) and the tour was fantastic. We loved it all.  That night we just ate dinner out of our ice chest in our motel room.  It was a great meal!  

Thursday, July 4th, we left Lake Chelan and drove the North Cascades Park Road 20 coming in at the East entrance.  It was a beautiful day seeing Washington Pass, hiking Rainy Lake trail. We stopped in at Newhalem WA and while there hiked the Trail of Cedars which was great. We found thimble berries that we had learned about in Stehekin along the trail and ate them up!  We also ate a snack in the park there. We went to the Cascade NP Visitor's Center at the West side of the park and watched the movie and hiked the River Loop Trail, and enjoyed seeing amazing Cascade Mountains all around us and several lakes/dams.  We wished we had had more time to spend in the park, but the time we had was awesome!!!  We ate dinner that night at a park out of our ice chest.  We stopped in at Monroe, WA, and had Dairy Queen to celebrate the 4th.  That night we stayed in a little town called Sultan, WA at the Dutch Cup Motel.  It was old, but great and we even found the town's firework's show to watch that night to celebrate the 4th! It was one of the best firework shows we have ever enjoyed.  It was set up in the middle of a big pasture and we just parked on a dirt road front row seat!  

Friday, July 5th, we made the drive to Missoula, Montana, to stay at the Brooks Street Motor Inn.  Along the way we stopped to hike the Deception Waterfall Trail.  It was so beautiful!  We were so glad we stopped.  We also stopped at the Grand Coulee Dam and watched the movie about it being built.  It is huge and generates more electricity than any other dam in the US.  We needed more time, but didn't have it. We stopped in a little town, Waterton, and had lunch at a park.  We stopped for dinner along the way at a place we have eaten before - Wink's.  They have great huckleberry shakes and the hamburgers were good too.  It was a great day.  The motel in Missoula wasn't our favorite, mostly because it didn't have the advertised fridge that we needed to cool off our ice chest contents.  But we got by.  

Saturday, July 6th, we drove into Yellowstone NP via the north entrance at Gardiner.  We have been to Yellowstone a couple of other times, once during Covid.  But there was one road in the canyon section of the park that had been closed for work, so our goal was to see that section.  We did, and it was beautiful!  We did a hike on the north rim down to the Brink of the Lower Falls.  Then we hiked along the north rim trail to see the other viewpoints as well.  Driving the road in from Gardiner was so beautiful and we also stopped and hiked to see some waterfalls along that road.  It was a great day and we used it all up.  We left the park via the west entrance and stopped off to eat at a Subway along the way to our destination motel, Henry's Fork Inn at St. Anthony, Idaho.  It was a really nice little motel along the Henry's Fork of the Snake River.  

Sunday morning, July, 7th, we attended a ward that started at 9 am so that we could get back and load up to head for home.  It was a nice testimony meeting.  We talked to Tahlia along the way home to wish her a happy birthday #12!  We stopped in at Evanston, Wyoming, to eat a snack and then snacked more in the car along the scenic route for dinner.  Finally, at Orem, we left the scenic route (we went through Bear Lake, but got no pictures), and got onto I15 to make getting home a little faster.  We got home and found all well and found our own bed at last.  This was a wonderful trip!!!  One more national park to check off and lots of wonderful memories to enjoy!