Eastern Cascades in Fall

We enjoy short getaways to the eastern slope in mid-autumn. This year we hopped over Stevens Pass on US Highway 2 to a small resort near the town of Leavenworth, taking advantage of two days of nice weather.

It is an easy two hour trip, in the absence of snow. The 1300m pass is home to a popular ski area, the closest one to our house. The route follows the Skykomish River toward its headwaters, then follows Nason Creek down the east side to just past where it joins the Wenatchee River.

The route parallels the BNSF tracks over the Cascades, but the train ultimately goes through a tunnel some 400m below the pass. This 12.5km tunnel, opened in 1929, is the longest railroad tunnel in the USA. It has ventilation problems that limit the number of trains per day. There are dual fans (1200kw) that exhaust the tunnel between trains. The Amtrak Empire Builder provides daily service on this route between Seattle and Chicago, passing through Edmonds and Everett and stopping in Leavenworth after exiting the tunnel. It is the most popular, well-traveled Amtrak route.

Our destination resort is Sleeping Lady, a cluster of cabins in the woods along Icicle Creek, another tributary of the Wenatchee. The town presents a touristy Bavarian village theme. The combination of town and resort suggests a smaller, less-polished version of the Solvang/Alisal ranch pairing in California. It's thus no surprise to learn the town transformed itself in the 1960s into its current Bavarian Village theme by choosing Solvang as a model.

The resort includes dinner and breakfast, with discounts for off-season autumn visits. There were perhaps only ten other couples there while we were there, so it offered considerable quiet and solitude. A four course dinner with wine bar in an attractive dining hall ensured we would not lose too much weight on the trip.

There is a small library with wood stove, books, and games that we enjoyed in the evening before dinner. We were the only couple there for two hours. We read and Scrabbled (yes, it's a word).

We spent only a single night. Before we left, we took the guided art walk through the grounds. Art consisted mainly of granite and metal sculptures and a large work of Chihuly glass. Of course, the natural setting itself is art without human intervention.

The human-created works have titles. The raven pair is titled Emissaries. They greet you as you walk in from the parking lot. The Chihuly glass work is titled Icicles. The decorated apple tree is titled Evil Eye Tree (the eyes are made from recycled glass). The group of brightly painted salmon along Icicle Creek is titled Soul Salmon. The three iron crows are titled Jail Birds (they perch on actual jail bars from a local jail). The large aluminum anthropomorphic salmon is titled Shaman Salmon, suggesting that humanity is captured by the magic of nature. The other large cast aluminum sculpture of human and salmon is titled Return to the Wild.

























We noted on return home that our front porch art was putting on a good show as well.