On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
PaulB
Welcome to stage 3 of “Washington’s Ultimate Road Trip,” the Cascade Loop. Today, you’ll be joining me on the road from Leavenworth to Wenatchee. The actual distance from Leavenworth to Wenatchee isn’t much, but there is a lot to see. I was still a bit battered, bruised, and burned from the hikes a couple of days earlier, so I used this time to relax and didn’t do much.
Note: You can see full-size versions of these photos here.
A view of the Cascades from the road.
Sharp rock formations along a side road. I was fascinated by these, as they seemed to come out of nowhere and were pretty rare. I think I only saw something similar a couple more times on this trip.
The side road was a bit elevated, which gave me a great view of the valley I was driving through. Most of this portion of Washington consists of various orchards, usually apples and cherries, although apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears, and various berries can also be found here. A summer Farmer’s Market in the Pacific Northwest is mouthwatering. There were also several vineyards along the route, as Washington has a thriving wine industry.
The next few pictures were taken from the main road. The river is the Wenatchee River, which the road paralleled the entire distance. One thing I noticed about this Cascade Loop road trip is that I was almost always in the immediate vicinity of water, from lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, snow melt runoff, and so on. I could almost have boated this entire trip.
More of the sharp rock protrusions.
This is a view of the interior of the Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee, an old steel mill that has been converted to a multi-purpose building that hosts art fairs, a farmers market, restaurants and shops. It was a lovely place to relax and have a late lunch and some gelato.
eclare
Very pretty! Those sharp rocks are interesting, I’m sure there is a geologic explanation, but I sure don’t know it.
BretH
Looks like Oz. Wonder what it looks like in the dry months – Google is showing a lot more brown.
JPL
I imagine crisp, cool air. Yes it’s 76 degrees and muggy already.
OzarkHillbilly
A beautiful place.
eclare
@JPL:
Currently 67 but going up to 96. I’ll fill the birdbath after I have my tea.
Raven
@JPL: it’s beautiful at the dog park this morning!!
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I have a friend who is a marine biologist who has lived there for years.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: I have never been the the Pacific NW, a failing I would like to rectify some day soon.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s awesome at the right time. I was at Ft Lewis twice and the summer was wonderful but the winter was a bear. My Ex and I camped on Orcas Island and did the North Cascade loop as well.
Hoodie
Been to Wenatchee several times. Great fruit. My boys ate so many cherries one time they spent the evening in the bathroom. A great side trip right up the road is to take the ferry or a float plane from Chelan to Stehekin at the upper end of Lake Chelan.
opiejeanne
@BretH: Especially since we don’t get rain as much in the summer, like every third day. We rarely needed to water our garden when we first got here in 2010, but in 2014 we had a drought that killed several pine trees in dramatic fashion. The third year of the drought these trees would be green and healthy-looking, and in July of 2016 they suddenly started turning brown, being obviously dead within two weeks of seeing the first hint of an issue.
opiejeanne
@Hoodie: Right now the cherries are fabulous, and I have to be careful how many I eat or I suffer the same fate as your boys.
Almost Retired
Sold! We have a hole in our July schedules and need to be in Salem OR for a family event on the 29th. So we’re taking off to do the loop as soon as it cools down a bit. You’re to blame.
PaulB
@Almost Retired: I’ll accept the blame. :) I’m glad you like what you see. And we’re not even halfway done yet. I think the next three photo sets this week will be of Ohne Gardens, the road to Winthrop, and then Winthrop itself. That last set also includes photos of one of the loveliest state parks I’ve seen, Pearrygin Lake State Park.
For the record, the weather during the trip was unseasonably warm for mid-May, with temperatures in the upper 80s, cooling down to something more normal in the second half of the 10-day trip.
Wenatchee is heading for a hot weekend right now, with temperatures forecast to rise to over 100 by Friday, and staying there until next Wednesday, after which it cools down to the mid-90s, if you can call that cool.
Here, on the other side of the Cascades, we’re supposed to see temperatures in the mid-80s, potentially rising to 90 on Sunday. It’s going to be a warm, sunny holiday weekend.
Personally, I’m going to shut the house up, put my earplugs in, and wait out the fireworks that will be going off all through the neighborhood for the entire 4-day weekend. One of the “joys” of living in a semi-rural community.
Almost Retired
@PaulB: It looks great. The conventional wisdom is to do it counter clockwise for the best scenery, so that’s the plan. We’re allotting about five or six days to account for hiking.
Yutsano
That will be quite the meet-up! I will definitely make sure something really good comes out of that.
You hit the Midde North at the right time if everything was so green. The heat will pretty much make everything brown pretty quickly. Fortunately most of the plants are adjusted to that including the dying in summer cycle to come back up again in the spring. For a few brief months we really are the Evergreen State.
stinger
What a lovely region! You must have had a wonderful trip (aside from the battering and bruising and burning). Thanks for the photos!
Origuy
There are a series of guidebooks called “Roadside Geology of…”, organized by the main roads, so you can follow along as you go on a specific route. Hard to do unless you are the passenger, though. The rock formations made me think of them.
StringOnAStick
@Origuy: i have those books for both WA and OR, and I looked up the section between Leavenworth and Wenatchee. I suspect those striking sharp rock outcrop are the Peshastin Pinnacles “formed from the steeply dipping Chumstick fornation.” That formation is made up of thinly layered shale and thicker beds of sandstone, things that are originally deposited in horizontal layers, then have been heavily contorted so that what was flat now points skyward, eroded to make those pinnacles. The softer shale gets eroded more quickly, leaving the steep sandstone layers exposed. Lots of fun geology in that area!
cckids
Love these; I live in Everett, my daughter and SIL live in East Wenatchee, so we drive this route often.
The sharp rock protrusions are at or around Peshastin Pinnacles State Park; it is a great place for hiking and climbing. The kids actually got engaged there :), and got married at Ohme Gardens (which I see is another of your stops). What a gorgeous state we live in!
ronno2018
Great post and photos! Professor Nick Zentner has a neat geology youtube channel focused on WA state — https://youtu.be/PWPeTJQGcDA?si=88xANHbuWDuViHsO
They Call Me Bue
Nice pictures! My brother is visiting from Maryland with his wife and their oldest son and I met up with them yesterday for a hike at Diablo Lake in the North Cascades, east of Newhalem on the loop. Took a bit of effort to get there from the Olympic Peninsula but the views made it well worth the effort. After a couple of days on the eastside (they hiked Rainier on Sunday) today they switched to a hotel near us on this side of the Salish Sea for the next few days before heading home. So three more days of hiking, catching up, and sampling local craft brews with a Mariner game on the 4th to round things out.
My wife and I feel so fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of the country!
WaterGirl
@They Call Me Bue: Sorry I was late seeing that this comment needed to be approved. Next time you comment, it will show up for everyone right away.
Welcome!