Northwest Loop: North Cascades

Scott, caty and me at the prettiest National Park entrance I have ever seen

North Cascades is a National Park you don’t hear much about. Perhaps that is because little of it is accessible by road and much of it is inaccessible in winter because of the extremely steep avalanche-prone mountains. 

The steep mountain descends right into the lake

I drove through it once in 1992 and remembered very little except a high wall of snow lining the road. I have always counted it as a Park I had visited, but I always felt I was cheating just a bit. So, when Caty wanted to include it in our Northwest adventure, I was in. 

Map: NPS

Located in the state of Washington just a couple of hours northeast of Seattle, North Cascades National Park is actually part of an interconnected three-unit wilderness “complex.” 

The complex also comprises Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. 

That area is surrounded by additional National forests and Canadian Parks. 

NCNP’s more than 500,000 acres protect the rugged mountain peaks of the North Cascades Range, the most expansive glacial system in the contiguous United States, the headwaters of several rivers and vast forests with the highest degree of plant biodiversity of any American National Park. 

Liberty Bell Mountain

But, as I said, most of it is not easily visited. Truth be told, we may not have actually set foot in the true Park in this visit, although we did get stamps at North Cascade National Park Visitor Centers and drive down Cascade River Road which does access the Park. 

A creek and falls on Cascade River Road

Most of the time, we were in Ross Lake National Recreation Area. It’s a bit confusing, but we’re counting it. 

A Hot Day

We didn’t have a lot of time to explore and, by the time we arrived at the Park, this year’s monstrous heat wave had also arrived. Temperatures reached 100 °F in an area where you might expect 70 °F at the most. So, in this case, our sightseeing-by-car system worked pretty well. 

The cool spray of a roadside waterfall was a nice foil to the heat

Look what I found!

We stayed at the Buffalo Run Inn on the edge of the Park in Marblemount. We expected the worst because it was incredibly inexpensive. But, it was quite nice and convenient. 

Marblemount is a tiny town with a couple of restaurants that had somewhat reduced service because of COVID, but it worked for us. 

Most of my experience in the Pacific Northwest was when I worked for GTE. imagine my surprise to find an old GTE sign still in place!

Drive-Through

We spent our day at the Park driving the main road, State Route 20, to admire the lush forests …

A creek winding through the trees

Waterfalls …

Lots of water flowing

Crazy beautiful lakes …

Diablo Lake -- no, this is not color-corrected

And rugged peaks … 

View from the Washington Pass Overlook

In the evening, we drove out the nearby Cascade River Road for a heavy dose of ferns ...

The primordial forest

Flowers …

The deep green is punctuated by lots of color

And flowing streams …

A rushing cascade on Cascade River Road

Skagit Artwork

About the Park 

So, here’s some background on the Park. 

The region was first settled by Paleo-Indian Native Americans. By the time European American explorers arrived, it was inhabited by Skagit tribes (the river that flows through the middle is the Skagit). 

By the early 19th century, the region was visited by fur trappers and, after the Canada-United States border was set at the 49th parallel in 1846, explorers came to chart potential routes through the mountains for roads and railroads. Limited mining and logging occurred from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, but the terrain made most endeavors nearly impossible. Thus, much of the area is still pristine.

A wide variety of plants

The first significant human impact in the region occurred in the 1920s when several hydroelectric dams were built on the Skagit River. Environmentalists then campaigned to preserve the remaining wilderness, culminating in 1968 with the National Park designation.

Ross Lake, one of several large lakes formed by dams

Most of the plant and animal species native to the Park region are still found there, though climate change and pollution from the west coast pose environmental risks. NCNP has one of the earliest and longest-lasting climate change research programs, primarily examining the effects of glacial retreat.

Photo: North Cascades Glacier Climate Project

NCNP is almost entirely protected as wilderness, and so the actual Park has few structures, roads or other improvements. There are not even any developed campgrounds. 

Erosion from water and glacial ice have created some of the steepest mountain ranges in the contiguous U.S. There is nearly 9,000 feet of vertical relief; the highest point is 9,220-foot-high Goode Mountain and the western valleys are only 400 feet above sea level.

"Rugged" is always used to describe the North Cascades

The Park is home to over 312 glaciers and 500 lakes and ponds. It contains the headwaters for streams that flow into the Skagit, Stehekin and Nooksack Rivers.

Mountain rivers and creeks

The North Cascades are a subsection of the Cascade Range that extends from northern California into British Columbia. 

The range is still uplifting

Unlike the volcanic mountains to the south, the North Cascades are primarily crystalline and metamorphic rocks, the oldest about 400 million years old. 

Rock formations have been repeatedly eroded, reburied and subjected to fracturing and heat, creating one of the most complicated and least understood geological records in North America. 

The region continues to see uplift and faulting. 

Many streams are feed directly by glaciers and thus carry finely ground rock particles commonly referred to as glacial flour, which remains suspended in the water, giving streams and the lakes they feed a bright but milky turquoise hue.

The silt gives the lake, in this case Diablo Lake, a milky turquoise hue

The hydroelectric power generated in the Park’s three dams supplies nearly 90 percent of the electricity used in Seattle. 

Ross Dam

NCNP has the most glaciers of any Park outside Alaska and a third of all the glaciers in the lower 48 states – an expanse totaling 27,000 acres as of 2009. Glacial volume has been rapidly decreasing due to climate change; in the past 150 years, ice volume has reduced by 40 percent. The heat wave we experienced probably did some additional serious damage. 

Photo: North Cascades Glacier Climate Project

Because very little of the Park was ever logged, almost half of it is old-growth forests. More than 1,630 species of plants have been documented within the Park. 

 

A ferny grotto

NCNP is home to 75 mammal species, among which are Wolverines, the endangered Gray Wolf and, possibly, the Grizzly Bear. NCNP is a prime Grizzly habitat, but the species was extirpated from the region by 1860. NCNP has management plans in place to return Grizzlies to the Park but not Wolves because the latter are seen as likely to reestablish themselves naturally over time.

Well, we did see one bear!

More than 200 species of birds pass through or use the park as a breeding ground, but we saw only Robins and Dark-eyed Juncos.

At least the only bird I photographed was a pretty one

At least 28 species of fish, including all five species of Pacific salmon (pink, chinook/king, sockeye, Coho and chum); seven species of reptiles; 12 species of amphibians; 250 species of aquatic invertebrates; and more than 500 species of insects have been documented in the Park. 

Flowers by a stream

Snow covers the ground more than six months out of the year, even at lower elevations, and State Route 20, the only highway through the park, is generally closed from late November until late April. Numerous avalanche chutes, as many as traverse any state or federal highway, and including some over 2,000 feet long, cross the highway and make snow removal during that period infeasible. 

Photo: Outside Magazine

A Really Quick Overview

Our visit was rather uneventful, as I said. We traversed State Road 20, once up to Washington Pass and once all the way through. 

Washington Pass

The evening we stayed in Marblemount, we also drove out the secluded gravel Cascade River Road that eventually reaches into the Park. It was cool and lovely, with lots of flora – but no fauna. 

Foxgloves are a common and colorful plant

Then, we left the next morning by driving east and then south around the bottom, heading back to Seattle. 

Summer playground; Photo: TripSavvy.com

Although the park was relatively uncrowded, we found out where all the people were: Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. 

It was full of boaters, swimmers and windsurfers. 

One thing we would have liked to do, but didn’t have time for was to take a ferry up narrow Lake Chelan and stay at a rustic Lodge at Stehekin. 

There are two different routes (it was unclear whether both were currently running): a leisurely four-hour narrated tour and a 90-minute express ferry. 

Maybe next time! 

Photo: the Lodge at Stehekin

Deception Falls 

The way back to Seattle was very pretty with a number of waterfalls and scenic vistas. We stopped at Deception Falls, an absolutely astounding waterfall. 

Deception Falls at the bridge

Not for its height or width, but for its raw power. I would not have expected such intensity in such a small waterfall. See it here.

Caty and I walked the half-mile interpretive trail and a little bit further on a connected hiking trail. 

The trail crosses and follows the creek

Near Stevens Pass, Deception Falls drops 94 feet from Deception Creek into the Tye River. 

One of the lower falls

Allegedly the falls can run dry in the late summer, which is hard to believe at the height of heat-wave-induced snow melt. 

Flowing through the woods

It was a nice soul-calming break on our drive back to the heat and bustle of Seattle. 

A lot of Pacific Northwest plants

End of the Core Trip

The next morning, Caty flew home with another National Park and a pod of Orcas checked off her to-do list. 

Wildlife, scenery and culture; a good trip

And, instead of heading south to Oregon as we had originally planned, we headed east toward Glacier National Park to get out of the heat and see what we could see.

Trip date: June17-July 2, 2021