The North Cascades are absolutely beautiful. There are so many different types of things to do and and see in the park. The park is also way less crowded in comparison to other large national parks which is surprising since it is less than three hours away from Seattle. So it is great for a weekend or longer getaway.
ABOUT THE PARK
North Cascades is a massive national park. You won’t see all the areas in one weekend but its a great place to come back to again and again because it offers something completely different to do each time. The park has over 300 glaciers and 500 lakes. The amount of lakes the park has was something that completely surprised me. Parts of the park are only accessible by boat/plane including the Stehekin Valley and Lake Chelan areas. The Ross Lake area is the most accessible area of the park.
BOAT IN CAMPSITES
I had never heard of a boat in campground before traveling to North Cascades National park. I organized a group of friends and I to go for a weekend camping trip at the park. I was looking in the Diablo lake area. I have a process where I literally just pick an area on the national parks map and then I research that area before arriving. This technique has worked out great in the past because I end up exploring a place that I don’t know much about and then get to research it a lot and see what there is to do in the area before visiting and what precautions to take. It adds to the sense of adventure.
So I picked Diablo Lake area off the park map and looked at the trail and thought great only a mile and a half to the campsite we can walk in still bring more stuff that a normal backpacking trip and it will be great, easy chill.
About a week before the trip, I’m looking over the reservation and realize my reservation says Boat in. I was like huh maybe thats just an option and there’s got to be two different ways to arrive. Then I proceeded to look into it to just to confirm that theres two ways to arrive. I called the rangers station and learned that apparently, Diablo Lake campsites are only accessible by Boat. We did not have a boat. Then we looked into distance and it was only a mile paddle.I was like mile paddle sounds not too bad. We do a lot of paddling up here in the Northwest because its a great year round activity on calm lakes and certain rivers.
Luckily my friends were totally down for an adventure too and we all proceeded to purchase inflatable boats/rafts/kayaks for the trip. We literally put our backpacks in an inflatable boat and paddled a mile down the glacial lake to get to the campsite. Did I mention that I arrived at night so we paddled down a glacial lake at night to get to the campsite. It was actually quiet magical because we were the only people at that campsite. It’s an experience I think many people don’t get to have anymore especially at national parks and I would highly recommend checking out the Diablo Lake area.
Once we were at the campsite we basically just hung out there for the weekend because to go anywhere else required more paddling. It was actually very relaxing to be forced to sit by a beautiful lake all weekend. My best friend actually decided to go to for glacial swim when the sun came out.
THINGS TO DO
There are so many other areas of the park we did not get to explore yet and I definitely plan on going back to check them out in the future. If you are planning a trip, I recommend either doing a backpacking adventure to an area of the park. Or hanging out lakeside for a weekend. Or summiting a mountain peak.
GLUTEN FREE OPTIONS
For food preparation, I treated this as if I was going on a regular backpacking trip. I was able to bring more food than a normal backpacking trip because I didn’t have to worry too much about weight. I stocked up on Wild Zora Meals and bars for food. These are the best tasting easy backpacking meals that I’ve found so far. They are also made in a dedicated GF facility which I find very comforting.
I was also able to bring some Simple Mills crackers and I brought some jerky and little applesauce packets for snacks and some GF muffins for breakfast. I really like the muffins from Red Plate Foods because you can get them in individual packages. I also brought a package of Groundbreaker GF beer for nights by the campfire.
We didn’t stop in Seattle on our trip this time but I highly recommend doing that as well a great GF meal after your trip. Seattle has so many great GF restaurants.
North Cascades is absolutely stunning place to visit. It is also a really great place for getting away from it all and gaining some solitude in nature. There’s a reason why Jack Kerouac loved it so much he wrote about it in The Dhrama Bums, Lonesome Traveler and Desolation Angels.