With glacier-clad peaks rising almost vertically from thickly forested valleys, the North Cascades are often called the American Alps. The national park forms one unit, of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. The two other units—Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area—contain most visitor facilities.
This Article Is From
Guide to the National Parks—Just Published
The most comprehensive, up-to-the-minute book of its kind
Official Web Site
The park complex preserves virgin forests, fragile subalpine meadows, and hundreds of glaciers. Mule deer and black-tailed deer graze the high meadows, where black bears gorge on berries and hoary marmots sunbathe. Mountain goats clamber on rock faces. Mountain lions and bobcats, seldom seen, help keep other wildlife populations in balance.
The wildness and ruggedness of the park especially lure hikers, backpackers, and mountaineers. "A more difficult route to travel never fell to man's lot," complained trapper Alexander Ross, who came here in 1814. But today the main road (through Ross Lake NRA) and easy access into the park—on some of its nearly 400 miles of trails—also allow more casual visitors to experience the peaceful forests and the drama of the mountains.
The region forms part of the Cascade Range, named for its innumerable waterfalls. The range extends from British Columbia to northern California. A geological theory proposes that the mountains began as a micro-continent several hundred miles out in the Pacific Ocean. Over the eons a series of islands floated on their plate toward North America. About a hundred million years ago, the plate smashed into the North American continent, folding and crumpling into a mountain range as it lodged against the landmass. Those mountains eroded; the Cascades you see today rose only five or six million years ago.
The western part of the park differs markedly from the east. Moisture blows in from Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It hits the western slopes and rises, condensing to rain and snow. Western red cedars, hemlocks, and Douglas firs luxuriate on slopes that receive 110 inches of precipitation a year. When the winds reach the east, they are mostly wrung dry: Only 35 inches of precipitation fall in Stehekin at the head of Lake Chelan. Arid-dwelling sagebrush and ponderosa pine grow in the peaks' rain shadow.
How to Get There
From Seattle (about 115 miles from the park), take I-5 to Wash. 20, also called the North Cascades Highway. From the east, get on Wash. 20 at Winthrop. To reach Stehekin Valley, either hike over Cascade Pass from the Cascade River Road (2-day hike) or take a ferry, or a chartered floatplane from Chelan, at the southern tip of Lake Chelan. Chelan is on US 97. Airports: Seattle and Bellingham and Wenatchee.
When to Go
Summer gives the best access, though snow can block high trails into July. The North Cascades Highway, from Ross Dam to beyond Washington Pass, closes in winter. Stehekin, a year-round community, offers winter cross-country skiing.
How to Visit
On a day trip, take the North Cascades Highway through the Ross Lake National Recreation Area for an overview of the recreation area's lakes and dams, the park's mountains, and the glacier-fed Skagit River. If you have 2 days, drive up the unpaved Cascade River Road and picnic and hike among the park's peaks and alpine meadows. On a longer stay, drive south to Chelan, and take the ferry or fly to Stehekin to overnight in a serene, isolated community or in the backcountry.
