dungeness wildlife refuge

Day 271 – Olympic Loop (Part 2)

Day 271 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Mount Walker

We started out the day taking a four mile dirt road up to the Mount Walker Viewpoint.  There is both a north and south viewpoint.  On a clear day, the Seattle area, Mount Rainier (the highest peak in Washington), Hood Canal with one of the longest floating bridges in the world over tidal waters,
Mount Baker, and several other peaks in the Olympic Mountains are part of the scenic panorama.  Today, however, fog was the only view.  Mount Walker is home to a handful of caches, though, so we picked up a few before bouncing back down to Highway 101.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 270 – A Rest Day

I spent the day resting at Dosewallips State Park.  VANilla got a good internal clean, and I stayed near a shower in order to clean my wound.  I did meet a few interesting folks in the town bar where I grabbed dinner and watched part of the football game.  It would be the Patriots…UGH!  Anyway, most of the locals looked like the guy who sat across from me…though I didn’t meet him.

Map of My Road Trip Across the USA

For a summary about my road trip across the USA, click HERE. For the interactive map, see the below link.

map of road trip along scenic byways across the USA
Interactive Link to Map

Shop

Check out the photographic note cards and key chains at my shop.  Each card has a travel story associated with it.  20% of proceeds are donated to charity.

photographic note card, sandy beach dunes
SANDY DUNES

Day 266 – North Cascades Loop

Day 266 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

After tooling around the Town of Winthrop, which looked like it had been preserved since the late 1800s, though the old-fashioned facades were erected in 1972, we turned south to Cashmere to complete a loop drive.

town of winthrop, washington

Cashmere, Washington

Aplets and Cotlets Candy Factory Tour

Cashmere is home to Aplets and Cotlets, a candy factory that provides tours of the facility.  The company was founded in 1920 by two Armenian immigrants who bought an apple orchard and together with their candy recipes from home created Aplets.  Later, they expanded to include a variety of fruit and nut confections.

I’m not the biggest fan of fruit candy, but I did enjoy the short factory tour.  We started in the kitchen where they ran four enormous double boilers to cook the ingredients.  The mixture is poured onto long, metal trays, the flavor is marked, and it is allowed to cool to room temperature for two hours before it is moved to the freezer for almost a day.

The candy slab is then covered with cornstarch and sent through the cutter.  The slab is cut into approximately 7,200 pieces of candy that fall into a tumbler which shakes off the cornstarch and adds powdered sugar.

The factory line workers then place the candies into the plastic trays.  They sort over 10,000 candies per hour.  The trays of candy flow along the conveyor belt to packagers who fill the boxes which are then sealed and inspected for tight packaging. There are other factory lines that produce chocolate products, but they weren’t on display.  It was fun to watch for a few minutes anyway.

  • aplets and cotlets candy factory
  • aplets and cotlets candy factory
  • aplets and cotlets candy factory
  • aplets and cotlets candy factory

The candy factory turned out to be our only stop for the day.  We spent the rest of the day traveling and ended the evening in Yakima.  We plan on visiting Mount Rainier National Park tomorrow.
ETB

Map of My Road Trip Across the USA

For a summary about my road trip across the USA, click HERE. For the interactive map, see the below link.

map of road trip along scenic byways across the USA
Interactive Link to Map

Other Articles About Washington You May Like

Shop

Check out the photographic note cards and key chains at my shop.  Each card has a travel story associated with it.  20% of proceeds are donated to charity.

photographic note card, waterfall in Olympic National Park

blue lake in the north cascades

Day 265 – North Cascades Loop (Part 4)

Day 265 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Gorge Powerhouse

Our first stop of the morning was at the Gorge Powerhouse which was a pleasant surprise.  The powerhouse was originally completed in 1924 and expanded in 1949. The first surges of electric power sent to Seattle via the Skagit Hydroproject were from this powerhouse. 

With four turbines which require a dam and the river being diverted through a tunnel to generate enough pressure to operate them, the powerhouse provides enough electricity for over one million 100-watt light bulbs. The 1960 dam, 300 feet high and 670 feet long replaced a 1923 rock-filled timber crib dam and a 1950 masonry dam.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
baker lake

Day 264 – North Cascades Loop (Part 3)

Day 264 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

I missed my turn back to the campground last night and forgot to mention the yard art I found. This house was complete with a tiger, bald eagle, moose and a zebra just to name a few.  There were so many, I can’t recall them all and they were big! Anyway, that was my evening entertainment before I turned in.

Gun Battery in Fort Ebey State Park

This morning I went on the greatest walk with Petey in tow.  We followed a ridge trail through Fort Ebey’s forested hills and looked out on the water with a mountainous background as ships sailed by.  Along the way to Partridge Point Beach, we stopped to explore the gun battery constructed in 1942. 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
view from langley

Day 263 – North Cascades Loop (Part 2)

Day 263 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Well, I felt like I had an extremely busy day to write about, but now that I have skimmed through the pictures I didn’t go many places.  It must have been the holiday traffic and the wait for the ferry that took up a few hours of my afternoon.

Wallace Falls State Park

This morning I took about a 4.5 mile hike in Wallace Falls State Park.  It was cool out and VANilla had a shady parking spot, so Petey got to wait for me.  I normally take him on dog friendly trails, but I’ve been subject to dragging him midway through the second mile.  Thank goodness I left him to rest, the trail had quite a bit of elevation change. 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
deception falls

Day 262 – North Cascades Loop

Day 262 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Petey and I went on the neatest hike this morning.  It was so unsual, interesting and scenic.  To get to the trailhead near Stevens Pass, VANilla took us through valleys of fruit orchards, followed alongside the Wenatchee River, and climbed a 4,000 foot pass before turning onto a gravel road which took us four miles to a parking area at the old town site of Wellington.

The trail runs along the old Great Northern Railway passage still marked with mile post numbers representing the distance from St. Paul, Minnesota.  We walked about 1.5 miles to mile marker 1712 where we found a cache to complete finding a cache in each of the lower 48 states.  Along the way we walked through a concrete snowshed that stretched nearly 2,000 feet and was somewhat eerie. 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
holland lake in flathead national forest

Day 259 – In Flathead Indian Country -Part 2

Day 259 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Petey and I pulled into a campground at Seely Lake late last night and spent part of the morning chatting with the campground hosts who were from Huntsville, Texas.  They were staying through the Labor Day holiday weekend and then touring around the northwest before heading back to the hot south for the winter.

After catching up with my fellow Texans, Petey and I began our next scenic drive through Flathead National Forest along Route 83. We headed north on the Seeley Swan Scenic Drive to Holland Lake. Holland Lake covers 400 acres and includes several trails, a 41-site campground, and a day use area. The recreational area provides visitors a plethora of activities from hiking to waterskiing.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 252 – In Flathead Indian Country

Day 252 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Relative to yesterday, we had a slow day, including a slow start.  I was blessed with a marvelous migraine and had to take Petey to the vet for a puncture wound.  Once we finally bid farewell to Melinda in Kalispell, we took Highway 93 south along the western shore of Flathead Lake. The lake is lovely, but not very conducive to old, injured dog activities.

Polson

As a result, we made our first stop at its southern tip in Polson, where I had lunch at Pop’s Grill, one of a few choices in the small town.  After lunch, Petey and I took a stroll through town and down to a park on the edge of Flathead Lake before returning to VANilla. 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
mountain goat in glacier national park

Day 251 – Going-To-The-Sun Road

Day 251 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

St Mary’s Falls Trail

What a wonderful day in Glacier National Park!  Our first stop on the Going to the Sun Road was at the St. Mary’s Falls Trailhead. I followed the St. Mary’s Falls trail through the forest along the aqua blue river to numerous waterfalls.  In fact, there were so many falls on the 3.6 mile round trip, that I, along with others, were confused as to which were which.

I was expecting to only see St. Mary’s Falls and Virginia Falls, but there were two more in between. What a pleasant surprise! At St. Mary’s Falls, water cascaded over the rocks as the river bent around cliffs like a backwards “C”. The next two unnamed cascades were multi-tiered falls certainly worthy of a visit. In fact, I liked them better than the final destination, Virginia Falls. That said, Virginia Falls, whose main falls tumbles 50 feet is quite impressive.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!