We have taken a likin’ to camping and we went again this weekend. The weather has been good so I was hoping to go to the coast. We had two places in mind. One was close to Forks – the Twilight Capital. But the weather looked poor for Sunday night so we made a call and headed to Central Washington where the summer weather is more reliable. The Cascades are a perfect rain/cloud barrier.

Sunday dawned cloudy. G packed up and we were out by 9am. Our destination – Entiat Valley. This is a valley between Wenatchee and Lake Chelan. We had never visited it in all our years of living here in Washington. Silver Falls CG was recommended in the Tent Camping book.

It took about 2 hours to make it over Steven Pass even on a Sunday Morning. There were a lot of people heading out to hiking or visiting Leavenworth.It was another hour up along the Columbia River to the turn off and another 30 minutes or more up the valley.

The valley was very interesting. It is a very warm microclimate and it was lined with orchards up past Ardenvoir. We entered the forest and we were soon at Silver Falls CG. We cruised through the camp and found a site along the river and quickly set up camp.

We relaxed reading the paper and napping. I decided to go for a walk to Silver Falls. It is a beautiful falls that cascades and falls down the side of the fall right across from the CG. It is a national recreation trail and is beautifully built. Each bridge is hand build with lots of details. There are also steps of granite climbing steeply up both sides of the fall along with several spots to sit and admire (or rest).

I did not go far and returned to camp with G took a nap. We had our dinner and started a fire. We had several deers passing near our camp in the early evening. Soon it was almost 10 and we headed off for the night. I awoke once and gazed at the bright stars.

The next day after breakfast, G & I both headed to the top of Silver Falls. It is actually a loop trail that loops from one side to the other crossing the stream at the top. It was steep but short. It is about 1.7 miles in loop but 700 ft gain. We took our time taking photos and admiring the views.

We returned and broke camp. We had seen a sign for a dirt backroad to Lake Chelan just down from the campground. It was 31 miles but we had time so we decided to take it. I’ll describe what we saw in the next post.

Our tent with sides rolled up for ventilation in the heat.

Lovely handwork on one of the bridges on the Silver Falls Trail

Cascading stream

Climbing up

Places to rest along the way

The largest fall

View of the Falls from opposite side

Bridge at the top

Warm Sunny Day on the Trail