Fire on the Mountain
Sep. 5th, 2023 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerNorth Cascades Travelog #7
North Cascades National Park - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 11am.
Today I'm reminded of the lyrics of the first stanza and refrain from my favorite Marshall Tucker Band song, Fire on the Mountain:
We only came from California, not Carolina, and it was only a few hours by aircraft plus several by 2023 Toyota Camry rather than 6 months in a wagon, and we weren't looking for gold in the hills, just a places to hike. But the rest of it matches. There's fire in the mountains!
As I've noted in recent blogs there are wildfires burning, or at least parts of them, in North Cascades National Park in Washington. News has been that crews are getting them under control, so we headed up into the pass this morning to see if anything's open yet. Nope. The trails we wanted to hike are all still closed, even the scenic viewpoint at the top of the pass is closed (the photos here are from the side of the road just below it), and the road at the top is one-way with crews signaling traffic.
We turned around when we saw the one-way traffic controls and headed back down the mountain, dejected. This was supposed to be our revenge trip. Instead Mother Nature is having the last laugh.
BTW when we got out of the car to make these pics at roadside pullouts we could smell the smoke thick in the air.
North Cascades National Park - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 11am.
Today I'm reminded of the lyrics of the first stanza and refrain from my favorite Marshall Tucker Band song, Fire on the Mountain:
Took my family away from our Carolina home
Heard dreams about the west and wanted to roam
Six long months on a dust covered trail
They say heaven's at the end but so far it's been hell
[refrain]
And there's
Fire on the mountain
Lightning in the air
Gold in them hills
And it's waiting for me there
We only came from California, not Carolina, and it was only a few hours by aircraft plus several by 2023 Toyota Camry rather than 6 months in a wagon, and we weren't looking for gold in the hills, just a places to hike. But the rest of it matches. There's fire in the mountains!
As I've noted in recent blogs there are wildfires burning, or at least parts of them, in North Cascades National Park in Washington. News has been that crews are getting them under control, so we headed up into the pass this morning to see if anything's open yet. Nope. The trails we wanted to hike are all still closed, even the scenic viewpoint at the top of the pass is closed (the photos here are from the side of the road just below it), and the road at the top is one-way with crews signaling traffic.
We turned around when we saw the one-way traffic controls and headed back down the mountain, dejected. This was supposed to be our revenge trip. Instead Mother Nature is having the last laugh.
BTW when we got out of the car to make these pics at roadside pullouts we could smell the smoke thick in the air.
