My regular readers will know that one of our favorite day trips from our home in Everett, Washington is the drive up to North Cascades National Park Diablo Lake Overlook. The highway (Washington 20) mostly parallels the Skagit River, which is the primary source of hydroelectric power for the Seattle area. On this trip, our first stop was the Howard Miller Steelhead Park in the town of Rockport. We found a bench, and ate our lunch overlooking the river. Since I am wearing a walking boot, nursing a torn tendon, I couldn’t do much walking, so I had to take my photos from our bench, through the trees.

The blue-green color comes from the glacial runoff that feeds the river.

The drive up the highway was uneventful, and we got to the overlook around 5:30PM.

The peak to the right is Pyramid Peak, and the one to its left is Colonial Peak. If you go down the lake to the East (left), you find the Colonial Creek Campground, which was pretty crowded this weekend.

This arm of the lake is around the opposite side from where we were standing. Sunday afternoon, the wind was blowing at about 15 MPH, and I really had to hold onto my phone tightly to avoid having it blown out of my hands!

You can see the wind-generated ripples on the lake.

I hope you enjoyed this little interlude of blue-green beauty in your busy day.