The Washington Alps

Hi All,

For her birthday Demaris wanted to go on vacation to the mountains. This weekend (a little late but it's how the scheduling worked) Jay arranged a trip to an unknown destination in the Alps, umm I mean Cascades.

As the legend goes: In the Cascades there is this little town called Leavenworth that was quickly becoming a ghost town in the 60's after the Mill closed and the railroad moved. The town fathers mortgaged everything they owned (seems like it wouldn't have been that much nor that big of a risk considering their holdings were land in a ghost town) on the advice of the University of Washington city planning dept. and renovated their town to reflect a Bavarian Village and established an Autumn Festival. These "Washington Bavarians" (not my words I'm just repeating the legend) "quickly became experts in all things Bavarian through travel and study" (I'm still quoting the legend as written in the tourist guide) to provide you with the most authentic Bavarian experience possible.

Having grown up near Helen, GA (same legend different mountain range) and not knowing where else to take Demaris this seemed like the perfect surprise vacation destination. For the record there's also Frankenmuth, MI with a similar legend & theme (but with a strange twist involving chickens) and one at the British Columbia/Alberta boundary.

For those of you who haven't visited one of these towns, try one sometime. They're very artificial, very touristy, often a little pricy but they always have decent putt-putt, hiking, rafting along with an assortment of bakeries, restaurants and hotels. Follows is a photoessay of our weekend getaway. Hab Spaß!

Demaris & Jay


The Cascades as we drove east on US 2 from Seattle through Stevens Pass (elev. 4100).


Just before Stevens pass was this fascinating old town, Skykomish. Skykomish was a boom town around 1910 with a Mill, Railroad and Mining. It had a population of around 8,000. Currently the population is 230 (the linked article showing a pop. of 270 is from the 1990 census.) This is a picture of one of the two grand hotels - this one dates to 1906. It was purchased by the Stevens Pass association for lodging for their employees in 1997 but from reading a notice posted on the town board, it may be totally vacant now.


Willkomen to Leavenworth where even the McDonalds has a little Bavarian sloped roof. An interesting question to consider is what are the effects of this sort of artificial town on the psyche of it's youth. Helen didn't have a real population base and Frankenmuth wasn't as pervasive. However, in Leavenworth it makes you wonder what are the effects of growing up in a facade instead of a town. Certainly, the summer resort town and the negative effects it can have on the local population has been studied. It seems like there would be a much more severe effect (although I've got no idea what sort of effect) from growing up in this sort of a summer resort.


The Gingerbread Factory. Decent Gingerbread cookies, don't get anything too fancy.


A view of the main retail street in Leavenworth.


Remember the foreshadowing of Putt-Putt? They've had the mini-golf championship here. This course has 18 holes and is natural grass with sand & water traps. Several of the holes are 35 yards from the teeing off location! Ultra nice but very pricy ($10/18 holes.)


Chief groundskeeper for the Mini-Golf. He and 2 of his friends keep the greens on the hill over the course in proper condition.


He seems a bit Gruff from our conversations.

More Leavenworth...