SKAGIT RIVER RV RESORT (WA)

MONDAY - When we woke up this morning we checked our lithium solar batteries and found the overall reading was reporting as 20% SOC, but by individually checking each of our three batteries, they were unexplainably reading 6%, 7% and 18%. That's not good!

Once we saw our campsite tenting neighbors up and about, we started making plans to quietly pack up and leave earlier than expected. By 7:30AM we were headed 11-miles down the road to the large Visitor Parking Lot in Newhalem, WA.

This is where we originally planned to do our sightseeing for today, so we didn't really miss anything by leaving a day early.

We found a good place to park for 6-hours while charging our batteries back to above 30%
and spent the rest of the time relaxing and sightseeing around town.

The main attraction for us here in Newhalem is hiking the short .3-mile Ladder Creek Falls Trail, so that's what we did first.

LADDER CREEK FALLS TRAIL

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There is a long pedestrian suspension bridge that allows access to the falls.
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You'll have to pass by the Gorge Powerplant building to get into the woods.
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The powerplant is still generating electricity, probably enough to run the small town.
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After passing through the powerplant the water rejoins the Skagit River heading downstream.
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There were gardens in addition to the falls, but they were looking very unkept.
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Only these Peruvian Lillys seemed to be doing well.
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We peeked into one of the side windows of the powerplant, but nobody was at their desk.
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It's called Ladder Creek Falls because you can't see the entire falls from one location.
It's more like three sets of cascading short and tall falls combined.
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This is the lowest portion of the falls and the first you'll see along the trail.
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We got excited when we saw the sign for the Bridge Overlook...
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...but like the rest of the trail it was neglected and in disrepair.
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I turned around at this point, but Tricia soldiered on up the stairs.
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There were a lot of them, thus why I turned around.
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The middle section of the falls contained the highest single drop of the entire run.
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It was worth taking a static video of the extra long drop.
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The very top of the falls was hard to see, so there could be more up above it.
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Like everything else this was no longer in operation.
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Even simple maintenance like trimming away the bushes from the trail wasn't being done.
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From the top of the trail you could actually look down onto the roof of the powerplant.
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This tunnel once connected to the Gorge Dam about 2-1/4 miles upstream.
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Today it's blocked off and used strictly for storage.
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Tricia found me patiently waiting to cross the vehicular bridge with her.
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From the middle of the vehicular bridge we could easily see the pedestrian bridge.
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The ridgeline above Newhalem was burnt during the 7,000 acre Goodell Fire in August of 2015.

There were three other points of interest for us in the small little town of Newhalem,

This is called the Temple of Power and honors the Seattle City Light Company.
They own and operate the four hydroelectric dams on the Skagit River.

"Old No. 6" is the steam locomotive that was primarily used to transport material
to install powerplants along the Skagit River from 1920 until 1954.

At the edge of town is the crypt for J.D. Ross (1872-1939) and later his wife Alice.
It's virtually unmarked and there is no signage pointing to it's location.

J.D. is who the Ross National Recreation Area and Ross Lake is named after.
He was key to developing the region and supervised the construction of all the nearby dams.

At 1:00PM it was finally time to go check-in at Skagit River RV Resort where we can plug in and finish topping off our batteries, we did manage to get them up to 30% SOC. We're both looking forward to those hot showers and maybe we'll even get some laundry done while we're here.

Now that we're plugged in, I prefer to be under the shade of the trees. It was 89°F today!

I was able to get the Starlink out from under the tree, so it's working like it's supposed to now.

Now you can see what I don't like about RV "Resorts", it's the closeness.
At least Skagit River RV gives you more space than most!

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