PAWA Paints the North Cascades NP and Winthrop 3-day Paint Out 2024

This event is for PAWA members only. If you'd like to join, please go to our website, PleinAirWashingtonArtists.com.

Facilitator: Jenny Kinberg

Email:studiokinberg@gmail.com Cell Phone: +1(541)297 6271

Are you ready for adventure? As far as National Parks go the North Cascades National Park is supremely underrated and under-visited.
Cutting a jagged border across the Northern half of Washington this mountain range is filled to the brim with hiking trails that snake through the emerald forests toward the last remnants of blue glaciers and piercing grey peaks with snow-capped tops. The scenery here is unreal. With its big valleys, open wildspaces, high ridges and beautiful rivers, North Cascades national park is a plein air painters dream.
Winthrop is an old west themed town with wooden walkways and cool old looking facades on the buildings.
Recommend making lodging reservations in February or March, they fill up fast.

Meeting location July 22nd :

Diablo Lake Vista Point is overlooking the gorgeous lake, The colors are ever changing. Sometimes bright emerald, sometimes an opaque milky jade, and other times dark with sapphire tones. Very easy place to park and see incredible lake views. Has bathrooms and picnic tables.
We will meet there at 10am on Monday July 22.
No cell reception just look for us setting up to paint.

Lunch :

There are picnic tables in the overlook parking area, we will eat around 12:30, bring a sack lunch.
Grocery store, nearest ones are in Winthrop and Concrete so stop there on the way up. There is no way to easily get to one once you are here, so pack a lunch on both Monday and Tuesday.
Restaurants- most of them are in Winthrop or Concrete. Camp stoves are a great idea!
No cell service so plan accordingly. Paper and/or downloaded map recommended.

After lunch:

After lunch, you will be on your own and can start another painting in the vicinity or go down to the lake shore to paint more intimate lake views. To get to the lake go back down the road to the boat acess area or Colonial Creek campground area-which you would have passed if coming from the I5/west side of the park.
Colonial Creek campground is just down on the lake and there is free parking at the very back of the campground ( south side of the road). Thunder Creek trail takes off from there and if you are adventuresome you can find some nice spots by the river to paint in less then a mile on the trail. On the north side of the highway is an open area along the road to park if not too busy. You can walk out the beach for some painting or walk into the campground and catch the Thunder Knob trail, short but all uphill.

End of day plan :

Dinner will be on your own as we will be spread out over various campgrounds or Airbnbs in this area which has no phone reception. Please take pictures of your paintings as you finish them in the field and after you return to civilization on Wednesday or Thursday post them to our Facebook group page or instagram with the hashtag #pleinairwashingtonartists

Note: Full moon is Sunday, so there might be good opportunities for nocturne painting in the days following- sunset is at 9pm and moonrise is at 10-11pm. We usually paint nocturnes from the area our tent is at, so likely will not be able to do this as a group activity this time, but just so you are aware of the opportunity that may be there. Don’t forget your painting light and extra batteries!

Meeting location Day 2 - July 23rd:

Washington Pass overlook 10am on Tuesday July 23. If you don’t see us unloading in the parking lot, walk out onto the short paved trail and you will find us setting up along there

Has a short, 400ft in length, level paved trail to great views. An Overlook at Washington Pass gives a spectacular view of massive Liberty Bell Mountain (7790 elevation) and Early Winters Spires. Has bathrooms and picnic tables. Painting right out of the parking lot can offer very cool views of Liberty Bell Mt. and the Early Winter Spires but that short interpretative paved trail offers really cool views too.

Directions:
From Winthrop, drive west 30 miles on Highway 20, turn right onto paved road to Washington Pass Overlook, drive 2 miles to parking area
From west, head east from Newhalem on Highway 20 for 67.6 km to milepost 162. Turn left onto the signed overlook road.

No cell reception but I don’t think we’ll be too hard to spot.

Lunch :

There are picnic tables in the overlook parking area, we will eat around 12:30, bring a sack lunch.

After lunch:

After lunch break, you are free to start another painting in the vicinity or go down the road heading east on highway 20, there are pullouts that have great views and wide shoulder, you could setup and paint there.
Or as another option, there are many short(ish) day hikes with great views, here are a few of them:
Easy Pass Trail - Mile Post 151 7.4 miles roundtrip 3000 ft elevation gain A steep trail to a mountain pass with panoramic vistas.
Blue Lake trail 4.6 miles RT 915 feet elevation gain - this one is really close to Washington Pass.
Maple pass trail loop - 7 mile loop 2100 ft elevation gain
For more info on any of these (such as specific directions, etc) look up on http://www.wta.org and type the name of the hike in the search box.
Northwest Forest Pass needed to park at most trailheads.

End of day plan:

Dinner will be on your own as we will likely be spread out over various campgrounds or airbnbs in this area which has no phone reception. Please take pictures of your paintings as you finish them in the field and after you return to civilization on Wednesday or Thursday post them to our facebook group page or instagram with the hashtag #pleinairwashingtonartists

Meeting location day 3 - July 24 :

Winthrop 10:00am Wednesday July 24
Best parking is reportedly the east parking lot which is on the other side of the car bridge, you can walk across the pedestrian bridge and paint down by the river or of course anyone can split off and choose a place on towns boardwalks.
It is not recommended to park on Main Street/ town as it will be busy and hard to find parking. At either end of town there are large parking lots, one just before town as you drive from Wa pass, large parking lot with big Red Barn, park and river access, easy walk into town and you are right at town center or the only four way stop. This is likely the best spot to set up. I will be set up there where you can find me near Town Halls small front yard that looks at two iconic buildings, Sherry’s Sweet Shop or the Emporium. Further SE is a small Pocket park but the views are limited. Winthrop is hard to paint unless you’re standing in the middle of things, it’s been done but not much in high tourist season like when we are going. Just east of the pocket park is the pedestrian bridge, it opens up to river and field views but not the town.
public restrooms at several locations, including adjacent to Town Hall at the four-way stop, and at the Winthrop Barn next to Mack Lloyd Park.

Lunch plans:

No lunch plans for Thursday, you are on your own. Mack Lloyd park, (the park across the river from town) has bathrooms and you can bring a sack lunch. Or if you are wanting to try out places to eat there are many options in Winthrop. Some places to eat that are popular are:
Rocking horse bakery,
Old school house brewery,
Three fingered jacks restaurant,
East 20 pizza,
Lost river winery.
Check out Purple Sage gallery while you are there, its a nice little co-op gallery and we like to support fellow artists whenever we are traveling.

After lunch:

After lunch you are on your own, you can either paint in the park or town or start heading home if you are from the Seattle metro area.

End of day plan:

Dinner will be on your own as many will likely head home on Wednesday afternooon.
Please take pictures of your paintings as you finish them in the field and after you return to civilization on Wednesday or Thursday post them to our facebook group page or instagram with the hashtag #pleinairwashingtonartists

Recommended Lodging/camping:

Campgrounds on the west side of the pass have reservations system up, there’s are a few and the closest is Colonial Creek campground.
Those on the west side have toilets and water but no showers, many on the east side of the pass are National Forest Service and don’t have water, so bring portable water if you are planning to go to one of those. They do have pit toilets. They are however mostly non reservable but are first come first served.
There is also a KOA campground in Winthrop and camping at Pearrygin state park nearby Winthrop.
For people who don’t want to sleep in a tent there are many Airbnbs, the closest are in the towns of Mazama and Winthrop. Chewuch Inn in Winthrop Is reported as being good.
Note Heading west from Winthrop to Washington Pass takes about 40 minutes to drive so factor that in if you are staying in Winthrop, however it definitely has the best options for the area.
Reservations strongly recommended for any of these, they can be found on recreation.gov Make your reservations in the month of February or March!
There are several boat in camping on Ross Lake and Diablo Lake, (wouldn’t that be fun!) you need a backcountry permit for those, check the National Park Service website for info on how to get those.

Other things to know:

Passes/permits
No national park pass fee or permit needed, it’s free! However
Northwest forest pass is required at many places East of Ross Lake. So once you pass the Ross Lake overlooks be on the lookout when you park at other locations going east. It appears that it may not be needed at Washington Pass overlook, but I’d bring one just in case. Northwest forest passes can be bought online or at many outdoor stores such as REI.
No entrance with a ranger to hand you a map either so if you don’t have one and want one the best places are coming from the west/I5 are:
North cascades visitor center by Newhalem.
Wilderness information center in Marblemount.
Gas
Coming from the east, Mazama is last place to get anything like food or gas for 60 miles.
Coming from the west, Concrete is the last place to get gas or any other supplies.”

Overall directions:

Each day has directions, this is a large area but there is really only major one road (hwy 20) going through it. The first two locations are accessed directly off the road and should be easy to find. I recommend getting either a paper map from the ranger station or downloading google maps offline for the area (and make sure your phone is charged!)

What to bring/not bring:

Bring clothing for all kinds of weather , mountain weather can change fast! Also bring sunblock, Bug spray. Lots of Water. Bear spray if you are going on any of the hikes, especially cascade pass where bears are seen frequently. Trekking poles if you are doing any of the hikes, most of them are steep. Sturdy shoes if you are going out to thunder knob, trail is not far but has small rocks. Things not to bring: dogs and drones Dogs and other pets are not allowed within the national park except on a leash on the Pacific Crest Trail, and within 50 feet of roads.

All paint-outs are for Plein Air Washington members. It is easy to join PAWA online

It is a good idea to print out this Eventbrite page to bring with you to be able to refer to this information, especially when there is no cell reception.

Thank you for signing up and HAPPY PAINTING!