West 2021:
Day 10 - Bay View State Park, WA

	Wednesday, May 12, 2021: We left camp around 6:45 AM.
	A trio of wild turkeys were near the roadside as we passed the park entrance.
	We continued on our westward journey along Banks Lake.
	Pretty.
	At the foot of Banks Lake, we crossed over Dry Falls Dam and headed to Dry Falls.
	Dry Falls was once the site of a huge waterfall system during the last ice age.
	It's hard to imagine what a 3 1/2-mile long waterfall would look like, but this artist's rendition helps.
	The falls eventually eroded 20 miles upstream, creating the Lower Grand Coulee canyon seen here.
	Speaking of the Grand Coulee, this plaque told us that it was on the list of registered natural landmarks.
	We passed several groups of deer crossing the road.
	As we crossed eastern Washington, we noticed lots of these rocks formations: huge, single rock formations.
	There are several in this photo. If we knew more about geology, we'd tell you all about them, but instead we'll just guess that they're related to volcanic activity.
	This little farm had a tall skinny building that caught our attention.
	We were headed to Lake Chelan next, which involved going up and down very steep mountains. Just a little terrifying in an RV, even a small one.
	We were in the land of many orchards.
	The Chelan Fruit co-op sign confirmed it.
	We crossed this bridge over the mighty Columbia River.
	We drove into the town of Chelan to look at Lake Chelan. We immediately realized that this was not the vantage point used to take all of the stunningly beautiful photos of Lake Chelan. That must be further up the lake, and time did not allow for that, so here's the best we could do.
	But we enjoyed noting the apple theme on the businesses ...
	... throughout the town.
	Here are more fruit orchards perched on hills overlooking the Columbia.
	We were driving the Cascade Loop Scenic Highway, ...
	... then the North Cascades Scenic Highway as we passed through Okanogan National Forest.
	We started to see snow as we drove higher into the North Cascades National Park.
	Getting deeper now.
	Little waterfalls were popping up on the sides of the mountains as all of the snow was melting.
	Look at the road going up the side of that gorgeous mountain ...
	... and the view from that road looking back into this gorgeous valley.
	Near Washington Pass (elevation 5477), we spotted our first official North Cascades National Park sign. It was almost completely covered with snow. It probably indicated what was down the road to our right.
	Further down the road, there was more of this sign showing. This is the Bridge Creek Trailhead for the Pacific Crest Trail South. For reasons unknown, there was a yurt here.
	More scenery and snow.
	More scenery but the snow was now gone.
	We passed Ross Lake National Recreation Area, ...
	... but only got a small glimpse of the lake itself.
	We got out at the Diablo Lake Overlook, which was very pretty.
	This sign showed us that Diablo Lake exists because of the Diablo Dam on the Skagit River, just as Ross Lake exists because of the Ross Dam.
	This little Seattle City Light metal hexagon in the ground dates to 1973.
	Check out those cool stone streaks in the rock walls along the road.
	The water in this lake was so clear we could easily see the shallow bottom.
	Tunnel!
	We got out to take a look at Gorge Creek Falls.
	As impressive as it was cascading down the rock, ...
	... it was even more impressive as it cut a narrow channel in the stone right below the bridge we were standing on.
	Tunnel!
	There's a series of three waterfalls, ...
	... and a closer look at the bottom one.
	The visitor center was closed for the winter as expected, ...
	... but we did get our official photo of the National Park sign on the way out.
	As we drove through the forest out of the park, we passed lots of moss-covered trees ...
	... before emerging into civilization.
	We stopped for lunch at Cascade Burgers in the town of Concrete.
	We enjoyed burgers, onion rings, fries, and lots of fry sauce.
	Washington was in full bloom and we passed lots of beautiful azalea and rhododendron bushes.
	So pretty.
	These bright orange bushes were especially eye-catching.
	Here's a different tractor crossing sign than we're used to seeing.
	This cool house had an Olde English-style thatched roof.
	The skies were just beautiful as we got close to our campground for the night.
	We had booked a campsite at Rasar State Park, but a few days earlier, a fellow Sequence owner posted in our Sequence/Tellaro Owners Facebook group about spending the afternoon at Bay View State Park.
	So we looked up campsite availability and couldn't believe our luck when this campsite was available for the night.
	As the park attendant told us when we arrived, we had the best spot in the campground. Lots of privacy and this amazing view of Padilla Bay.
	It was a short walk from the campground to the park along the water.
	It was low tide when we first arrived but the water was now starting to come in a little.
	It was great to smell the sea air and enjoy the sunny breeze.
	Cranes and/or herons were out in the water enjoying the low tide.
	This interesting ship was barely visible in the distance.
	We headed back under the road and up the hill to our campsite.
	We spent a couple of hours with the sliding door open without the the screen, ...
	... then headed outside to enjoy the late afternoon sun.
	We tested out our new ultra-light,ultra-compact folding chairs. They are small but effective, and fold up into small foot-long sleeves.
	We used our small parachute-material mat under the chairs that also folds up into a bag less than a foot long. We are big fans of things that take up very little space in our rig.
	Speaking of our rig, it was looking beautiful in the sunshine.
	With a view this beautiful, ...
	.., we decided to enjoy dinner outside, so we cooked up a package of one of our favorite freeze-dried dinners, beef stroganoff.
	Sunset was spectacular.
	This is #VanLife at its finest. Day 11 >