Friday 8/18/00
Day 12: Leavenworth, Winthrop,
We left Yakima around 6:00 in the morning as we would be driving thru the Northen Cascades today. We drove north on highway 97 and passsed Ellensburg around 7:00. We would now start getting into the moutaninous region or thenorthern Cascades. There used to be alot of mining occuring here inthe late 1800's and ther is still mining going on, but at a much smaller level. Ten mile north of Ellensburg I would turn off to go to Libery that is new Swauk Creek. The town is on the National Histoiric distric as the largest mining activity that occured the late 1800;s . There is also a old dregde that was left here near the creek as they started using this in the 1920's. I took decided tot ake afravle raod up in teh hills and see if there wasnaymore old mining areas. I did not find anything but did finally come to a dead end and had a great view of Mt Rainier in the backgroudn of the the Cascade pass. I rested up here for a little bit enjoying the peaec and quiet before startring back down agian.
I came back to highway 97 and now drove over Blewit pass at 4,200 elevation and was going next to the town of Levenworth. This a a small twon that changed their town to a German Barbarian theme in the 60's. Barbarian archicultre is on the fromnt of many businesses int ehcommu ity. We stopped here abd wanted to browse through some of the shops, which sold everything from toys to books, outdoor equipment, hot sauces, wines, jewelry, glass and wood sculptures and lots of knick knacks. One place I would recommend for food is at Andreas Kellers. We have ate dinner here before and ejoyed the good food and also had German music playing while your eating. Levenworth is also a very popular place to go during Christmas Lighting and also have a summer music festival. Cindy and I would like to come beckc here for a weekend by ourselvs when we can enjoy th food and atm0osphere. We finally left town at 11:30and as the day progressed the clouds came in but the temperture still stayed in the high 70's.
We
drove NW on highway 2 becaues we wanted to go to Lake Wenatchee. turned off
on highway 207 for Lake Wenatchee State Park, a huge park with about 200 campsites
for families and another 100 for group camping located in two different areas
north and south of Wenatchee River, which flows into Lake Wenatchee. The campgrounds
were all full. It was a pretty lake, unfortunately most of the shore is privately
owned. We drove to nearby Fish Lake, which was a smaller lake much busier than
Lake Wenatchee. People with RV's and tents were camping in a parking lot. There
were lots of people sitting in chairs on a dock holding fishing poles. We finally
found the town of Plain--just a grocery store, hardware/antique store and restaurant
(closed). There was barn with a large flag painted on it's side as we drove
into this tiny town. We decided to continue on this backroad to Winthrop. It
was a nice drive through valleys filled with farms and quaint homes. The road
was quite windy as we left Plain. We finally drove into Leavenworth at 8:30
pm. We found a room at the Evergreen Inn. We paid $65 dollars (regularally $95),
for a room which had three beds, two in seperate rooms, a kitchen with stove,
microwave and fridge, and 2 bathrooms (one had a shower). We walked around town
and decided to eat atwhich of course served German food. We had to wait almost
a half hour for a booth. We were one of their last customers of the night. The
service was friendly and they had an accordian player. The food was Ok. After
the kids went to bed we went out looking for a bar. Only one place was open
on Friday night. It was full of young people and quite noisy. They served their
last drinks at 1 am.
Leaving Leavenworth we passed some nice motels out of town that were probably cheaper than in town. About two miles out of town we came to the Peshastin Pinnacles State Park. These pinnacles are popular with rock climbers. We took pictures from the parking lot and decided to keep going since we got such a late start. We drove through the small town of Cashmere, which had lots of cute older homes. The main street of town was lined with flags. We drove through Wenatchee, the largest town in this area. Just north of town on a bluff overlooking the valley we pulled in to the parking lot of the Ohme Garden County Park. Until recently this was a privately owned garden. We thought about taking the tour but they charged $6 for adults and $3 for kids.
Continuing north on highway 97, we turned left on to the Eniat River Road
looking for some waterfalls. This was a well maintained road that went through
a valley with small homes, farms and a few tiny towns. Preston Falls was suppose
to be around mile 23 just past the small community of Brief which had a few
residential streets but no businesses. We never did find Preston Falls. At
mile 31 we could see Silver Falls from the parking lot. We took a 1/12 hour
hike to the falls. This trail was rather steep with lots of stone steps, it
loops around and has several bridge crossings over the Eniat River. At one
point you can actually walk under the falls. It was quite a warm day, but
at times the temperatue on this trail must have dropped 10-15 degrees when
you were near the river and could feel the mist. The tree canopy also contributed
to the drop in temperature. We headed back going past Brief and turned left
on to Mudd Creek Road. 
Our map showed that we could reach Navarre Coulee Highway 971 from this gravel
road which would take us to Lake Chelan. We wouldn't recommend this route
as the conditions of this gravel road got worse and worse as we continued.
It took us through forests that had been badly burned a few years ago. We
saw houses that looked like they had narrowlly excaped this fire, with all
of the trees around them being burned. Some parts of this road were well marked
and others were not. At one point a sign said the Navarre Coulee Road was
only 5 miles away. It was an awfully long five miles! The road reminded us
of the one to Bella Cola off the coast of B.C. We breathed a sigh of relief
as we saw the paved road down in the valley. It was a great view, but not
worth it!.
When we got to Lake Chelan we drove north along the shoreline for a little
ways, not seeing any shore access we drove back to Lake Chelan State Park.
This was a large, busy park with about 130 campsites. The campground was full.
We drove around the town of Chelan which was quite busy and had several nice
hotels on or near the lake, looking for a Subway or a KFC. We found Subway
first, located in a busy gas station/convenience store and bought sandwiches
to eat inthe truck. We took Highway 97 north stopping at Alta Lake. The road
to the lake went past a residential golf course. This was a fairly small lake
considering the campground at Alta Lake State Park has 150 sites. It was busy
and we got out just long enough to use the public restrooms.
The highway eventually headed northwest and became Highway 153 and then Highway 20. The Methow Valley was a pretty area with lots of meadows, orchards and farmland. The town of Methow was small with a cute church and a couple stores. Twisp was larger with several motels. We finally got to Winthrop around 7 pm. This is a town with a Western theme, with false-fronted buildings and wooden boardwalks. There were lots of motorcyles in town. All of the hotels/motels had 'no vacancy' signs. We followed the signs a little ways out of town to the Pearrygin Lake State Park, but all 25 of their campsites were full. Driving back through town we thought we had better look at some of the private campgrounds we had past between Winthrop and Twisp. They all appeared to be full. There were signs on the main highway for campgrounds that were 15 - 20 miles east, but we didn't want to make the trip and find they were all full. Heading back to Twisp we remembered seeing a small motel but it was also full, as was the Sportsman Motel which looked inexpensive. We finally found a room at the Blue Spruce Inn for $42. We felt like it must of been the last one available in the area. We drove back into Winthrop, about 8 miles northwest. We found a parking spot rather quickly but the town was packed. Only about half of the shops were still open at 8:30 pm. We looked around a bookstore and another store selling a variety of western souvenirs. Jacob got a chance to see some real Confederate money on display. We finally ate dinner at Three-Fingered Jacks, which was a family-friendly western-style restaurant with a bar one side. We went back to our motel room and came into town later that night. Only three bars were open, we had a beer at the bar at Three-Fingered Jacks.
We drove 300 miles today and 3500 total