Day Three – Sage to Sea Breeze

Today actually started shortly after 1:00 am. Both of our cellphones sounded an alarm about a wildfire near us. We had seen smoke in the canyon the night before. We figured the hotel staff would let us know if we needed to get out. It took us a while to get back to sleep. When we opened the windows this morning, this is what we saw.

We were slow to get moving and left the hotel around 9am. After we verified that Highway 97 was open, we set off heading north to Paterson before turning west. We passed the fire on the west side of the Columbia River.

The Columbia is an enormous river that offers an oasis to the surrounding desert. Everything is brown except directly around the river and the surrounding orchards and crops which pull water from the river for irrigation. It doesn’t hurt that it cools off the surroundings a bit, either.

By noon we left the sagebrush behind and entered the beautiful Cascades. We followed the Methow River and then the Skagit River. The mountains on either side of us treated us to several waterfalls.

We stopped several times to take in the scenery. Ross Lake was a beautiful deep blue and Diablo Lake was a stunning green all due to “rock flour” which is sediment from the mountains.

Having been startled awake in the middle of the night, we stopped for a rest.

We stayed on Highway 20 all the way to Anacortes, as did the Skagit River. We saw multiple ospreys and two bald eagles today. Anacortes welcomed us with weather in the high seventies and the smell of sea air.

Tomorrow we take the ferry from here on Fildago Island to San Juan Island.

Cathy’s Barn-Pic-of-the-Day…