Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Washington Cascades Highlights
Watching bald eagles soar above the
Upper Skagit River
during a frigid January
float trip (
Click here
).
Hiking cross country through the
North Cascades National Park
to the hidden
village of Stehekin (
Click here
).
Sitting in an alfresco hot tub outside the
Sun Mountain Lodge
(
Click here
) trying
to remember if you've ever enjoyed a more tranquil view.
Breaking trail with a pair of cross-country skis in the sunny
Methow Valley (
Click
Being one of the lucky few to reach the top of
Mt Rainier
(
Click here
)
when the
clouds clear.
Watching new life tentatively re-emerge on
Mt St Helens (
Click here
)
.
Following in the tracks of snowboarding legends at the
Mt Baker Ski Area
(
Click
NORTH CASCADES
Dominated by Mt Baker and - to a lesser extent - the more remote Glacier Peak, the
North Cascades is made up of a huge swath of protected forests, parks and wilderness
areas that dwarf even the expansive Rainier and St Helens parks to the south. The crème
de la crème is the North Cascades National Park, a primeval stash of old-growth rain-
forest, groaning glaciers and untainted ecosystems whose savage beauty is curiously
missed by all but 2500 or so annual visitors who penetrate its rainy interior.
Geologically different to the South Cascades, these wild northern giants are peppered
with sharp, jagged peaks, copious glaciers and a preponderance of complex metamorphic
rock. This gives them their distinctive alpine feel and has helped create the kind of irreg-
ular, glacier-sculpted characteristics that have more in common with the mountains of
Alaska than the 'rounder' ranges further south. Thanks to their virtual impregnability, the
North Cascades were a mystery to humans until relatively recently. Steep peaks such as
Liberty Bell weren't climbed until the late 1940s, the first road was built across the re-
gion in 1972 and, even today, it remains one of the Northwest's most isolated outposts.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Mt Baker Area
Search WWH ::
Custom Search