road trip in the north cascades Archives

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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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!

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!