North Cascades National Park

Finally, after nearly two weeks in northwestern Washington, we had a chance to visit the North Cascades National Park!  Featuring rugged peaks and dramatic glacial and volcanic features, the park protects important regions of the northern Cascades mountain range.  It was established as a national park in 1968.

There is no doubt that the entrance sign to this park is the best entrance sign we seen in any national park:

The park stretches along Washington State Highway 20, the drive along which is itself as dramatic as any we've taken in the Rocky Mountains:

This national park is not well known, but, with approximately 312 glaciers, it has the most glaciers of any U.S. park outside Alaska and a third of all the glaciers in the lower 48 states are located in North Cascades National Park.

The Skagit River forms the spine of the park.  It is a major salmon fishery, and stretches 150 miles from its source in British Columbia to Puget Sound.

Along the Skagit are three hydroelectric dams that form large alpine lakes, including Ross Lake, where we hiked.  But the park also includes Lake Chelan, a well known recreational area in Washington.

We decided to hike around Ross Lake.  Ross Lake is formed by Ross Dam and is approximately 24 miles long, winding south through Ross Lake National Recreation Area. Within the lake, the Skagit River receives Beaver Creek from the west and Ruby Creek from the east. Spilling out of the dam the river enters Diablo Lake, formed by Diablo Dam, and receives Thunder and Colonial creeks before it enters the third and final reservoir, Gorge Lake, formed by Gorge Dam. All three dams are part of the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project.

Here is a view of Ross Lake from Highway 20, looking upstream:

The trails in the national park are well maintained and well signed.  Here, Kathy examines the trailhead board for our trail:

The weather was breezy and cool, so David decided to model the latest fashions in fleece and hat:

Our trail took us down a steep cliffside to the dam.  Looking downstream, to the south, we could see the Skagit River flowing toward Snowfield Peak and Paul Bunyan Stump:

No sooner did we take in the scene above, than we turned a corner in the trail and got a much clearer view of the peaks:

Down on the dam, we crossed the bottom of Ross Lake and were treated to a panoramic view of Jack Mountain, with the floating Ross Lake Resort on the lake in the foreground:

The Resort is situated in a line of twelve individual cabins and three bunkhouses built on log floats.   It is accessible only in two ways:  by hiking along the west shore of Ross Lake (as we were doing), or by ferry from the east side of the lake, from a ferry dock that is accessible by car from Highway 20.

Here, Kathy is working her way up the trail, which rises and falls as it winds around the lake:

The trail along the shore of Ross Lake extends more than 30 miles into the wilderness protected by the national park, so we had to select a turnaround point, retracing our way back to Highway 20.

As we hiked back up the cliff to the trailhead, we passed again a roaring waterfall that we had heard on our hike down but had not seen.  We had crossed a bridge above the falls -

- but we couldn't see the falls from above.  On the return up the trail, however, David bushwhacked down a steep slope into the creek drainage and caught this photo of the falls -

- as well as this video of the hidden waterfall.

Returning to the truck, we had an hour-and-a-half drive back to our campground, longer than we would have liked, but filled with lush, grand view of the Skagit River and northern Cascades.  We resolved to return and camp in the park so that we can explore other corners of it more deeply.