Jordan & Rusty toured the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project on 8/12/18. We drove from the TRC, where we had spent the night after visiting Arlington & Camano Island. The farmer’s market in Arlington was tiny & disappointing. But the beach at Camano Island State Park was lovely. It rained hard that night. But the Upper Skagit River Valley was very dry. It was also very hazy with smoke from forest fires in British Columbia. After driving 2 hours, we stopped at the North Cascades Visitor Center of the North Cascades National Park. The hydroelectric project is in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area in the North Cascades National Park.
We drove a short distance to Newhalem, a community of worker houses, general store, hotel with restaurant & a few tourist attractions. We stopped at the Skagit Information Center to get a brochure. Then we walked to the suspension bridge & across the Skagit River to the Trail of the Cedars. The trail makes a loop through a beautiful forest filled with huge cedar & douglas fir trees. It was great. We drove to the nearby Gorge Powerhouse where we crossed the Skagit on another suspension bridge. We walked beside the lovely Ladder Creek Falls, right next to the powerhouse. We saw the turbines from a big window in the visitor gallery. It was like a scene from a silent movie. The powerhouse was completed in 1924. We were about 2 hours in Newhalem.
We drove 20 minutes to Diablo Lake Vista Point. The lake was lovely & the mountains were very hazy from that height. And finally we drove another 5 minutes to the Ross Dam Trail, where we walked down to the top of Ross Dam with a view across Ross Lake. We spent almost 2 hours on the trail & at the dam. The Skagit River Hydroelectric Project consists of 3 dams, 3 powerhouses & 3 lakes: Gorge, Diablo & Ross. Ross Lake stretches across the Canadian border.
