Newhalem is a company town. It seems to exist purely for Seattle City Light – I assume they are the operators of the three dams on the river with the associated power generation capacity. The town doesn’t seem terribly large and the housing looked like it was for the power workers. Even so, the small downtown area was worthy of a walk around.
Aside from the local shops and parks, more of which will appear later on the blog, there was a suspension bridge across the river. It led to a trail through the woods which, had we had more time, we would definitely have explored. Instead we appreciated the views of the river, the bridge itself and some of the local buildings including one which was once a hotel but is now a museum – sadly closed on the day we visited.
