Stehekin, WA

Stehekin is a remote town of 70-plus residents. It is 55 miles up Lake Chelan and is surrounded by wilderness areas, National Forest, and National Park lands. The only way to reach Stehekin is by boat, sea plane or to hike in. We chose to ride the Lady Express for the two and a half hour ride up the Lake. Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the U.S. at 1,486' - Crater Lake (1,949') and Lake Tahoe (1,645') are number one and two. We've seen all three, just in this trip.
To say we went "backpacking" seems like a stretch because from Stehekin Landing we were able to catch a shuttle bus that dropped us off within 100-yards of our campsite. We didn't mean to be so lazy, it just happened that way. We planned on making our camping reservations when we got to the NPS Ranger station upon our arrival. They do have campsites further out in the wilderness, but after talking to the rangers about the hiking trails around the campsites and availability of sites, we chose Harlequin Camp. But eventhough we were close to Thee Road (there aren't many), we had to filter our own water and we had to use a pit toilet - so that's roughing it! Ha! Our campsite was right on the Stehekin River and there were spawning Kokonee Salmon. We felt that we were watching a National Geographic show.

Here's a picture of Rainbow Falls. This is just the lower half.
And here's Mt Agnes from our hike along Agnes Creek Gorge trail. You could see snow on many of the mountain peaks, but we didn't get close enough to those. The North Cascades Nat'l Park has over 300 glaciers within its borders - the most of any park outside of Alaska. We hope to get to see more of the glaciers when we get to the Park from Hwy 20.One thing that is interesting about this unique town is the vehicles that the residents drive...they're so old! Datsuns, Toyotas, it doesn't matter, but these vehicles haven't been seen on the roads of Florida for decades! To get a car to the town requires shipment on the barge, which takes 8 hours each way for the barge to travel the length of the river. So the residents just find a way to keep these old cars running. But one of the residents pointed out that they live in one of the most pristine places in the country - but have the worst polluting cars on the road.If we ever go back to Stehekin, we won't take as much food as we did. There is the Stehekin Pastry Company which has delicious items, and we've heard that the Stehekin Valley Ranch has incredible dinners. But would it be wrong to go "camping" and then not cook your own meals?