Ashleigh on Cape Flattery Trail in 2019
The Upper Left
How many Americans ever get to go to the far Upper Left of the continental U.S.?
How many of us will stand at Cape Flattery looking past the rocky cliffs pummeled by Pacific crests, pondering how far we are from the rest of the continental U.S.?
That bracing view, that feeling of the whole world wanting to rush in on endless waves.
The Return Trip
Well, we were lucky enough to go there in 2018 and 2019, and we tried to go back in the summer of 2020. We made it all the way to Deception Pass State Park on the northern tip of Whidbey Island but the air was choked with smoke from fires all along the West Coast in California, Oregon, and Washington. We camped there for one night*, ready to start our adventure to the Olympic Peninsula – but turned around when air quality advisories implored us to stay inside.
* One thing to note when camping on Whidbey Island: there's a Naval Base there… (click for video).
Inside… in our case, on Whidbey, we’d be holed up inside our van, with far less living space (and less air-tight) than a traditional house. We had to make a decision: stay in Washington State breathing bad air for another week or longer, or retreat back east across the state and escape the fires. We retreated; the smoke had choked us out.
North Cascades National Park
One good thing did come of that trip: North Cascades National Park.
You hear about Glacier National Park in Montana and Banff in Canada. You hear less about North Cascades National Park.
We first heard about it from friends Kevin and Sabrina in 2018. We spent only a few days there in summer 2020 and want to go back as soon as we can. Don’t miss it if you’re near Seattle.
That’s the thing about the Upper Left, and the whole Pacific Northwest. It’s far. From Boulder, it would take about three days to drive there if we hustled – to Jackson Hole in one full day, then to Spokane in one more long day of driving, and then to North Cascades arriving on the third night. Realistically, it’s more like five days if we stopped once or twice along the way – like in Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Park, which we’d otherwise just barely graze.
Venturing as far northwest as North Cascades puts us very close to the Olympic Peninsula…
You can see the impression the Pacific Northwest made on us – always plotting our way back.