North Cascades National Park

High up near Washington's border with Canada, the North Cascades slash triumphantly into the sky. The national park is about three hours northeast of Seattle but the drive goes fast, broken up by giant mountains that first loom in the distance then come into focus and take on personality as the road passes. Also on the way is the washed out hillside that swept away the town of Oso in March 2014.

Along with my sister and her boyfriend, we made a quick stop at the visitor's center and a couple overlooks before driving to the east side of the park and hiking a few miles out to an unmarked but well-trodden trail to what we referred to as Extra Beautiful Turquoise Lake. The radioactive blue waters collecting at the base of waterfall-laced mountainsides actually go by the name Lewis Lake, but we liked our name better.

After the hike we drove to the Washington Pass overlook beneath Liberty Bell Mountain's twin peaks and took in one last sweeping view of the rugged, rutted mountains before stopping for ice cream  in Marblemount and driving back to the city. I was growing ever more impressed with the Pacific Northwest.