Bacon Creek Anthology

Skagit River near Cascadian Farm

Just an hour east of Highland Garden House Bed and Breakfast is some pretty spectacular country.  This area, know as ‘The American Alps,’ is on your way through the North Cascade Mountain Range on State Route 20.   This Pass is closed every winter from the first heavy snow fall to about mid-May.  This means this area is pretty quiet this time of year.  I took a little drive up there today, March 23, 2013, and could not have had a better day.  I especially like this time of year because it is starting to warm up, the Pass is closed so minimal traffic and the trees and brush have not leafed out yet so your views are MUCH bigger. Warm, dry, sunny, no traffic and …..really cheap gas.  See below.

Do not fill up your tank down in the Skagit Valley, wait til you get to Lyman and buy at Cascade Mercantile. This is the cheapest gas in the entire Northwest.  I have been watching this station for a while and this is true.  I bought today for $3.49.9 a gallon, cash.  Most gas down valley is 3.69-3.99.  And they are really friendly, down-home people running this store.  It is THE supermarket for this part of the mid-Valley. (4/28/13, On second thought, this place MIGHT NOT be the cheapest gas, best to fill up back at the AM/PM on Township Street and Hiway 20, just east of Sedro-Woolley.  Today Cascade Mercantile had it at 3.59 and the AM/PM was 3.33.)

Below is a map of the area around Bacon Creek.  All that light colored area is the boulder field.  These rocks are being swept toward the main stem of the Skagit River by Bacon Creek.  Although Bacon is called a Creek, it may qualify as a pretty big River in some other region.

Although it is pretty quiet around here now, in 1933 this was the site of CCC (Civilian Conversation Corp.) Camp Skagit.  A main CCC camp.  Read more about Camp Skagit.  I do not know for sure, but if you walk down Bacon Creek road toward the Skagit River, you will see what is left of this Camp; a structure that may have been the main hall.  There is a gate across this road.

I am only going to show a selection of photos I took today, with captions.  Nothing real special, but you can get the feel of the area on the way to Newhalem and the Seattle City Light dams on the Skagit River.

Bacon Creek Boulder Field

Skagit River at Bacon Creek

Skagit River at Bacon Creek

A White Whale in a sea of Granite

Bacon Creek ‘Ankle Twisters’

And of course, some power lines

’til next time,
Dennis George
Highland Garden House B & B
501 E. Highland Ave.
Mount Vernon, WA 98273
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