Gorge and Diablo lakes appeared bright green Ross Lake, shimmering in the sun, reflected the deep blue of the sky.Ĭhecking our guidebook, we kept an eye out for the trail to Rainy Lake. (Though both trees have reddish brown bark, cedars have scale-like leaves, while firs have needles.) After our hike, we picnicked at the trailhead, buying bread and a sharp cheddar at the Skagit General Store, which is right in the parking lot.Įast of Newhalem, the highway climbs through a spectacular gorge, edging high above a trio of slender lakes resembling the fjords of Norway. Signs along the way introduced us to the region's plants and trees I started my informal education on how to tell the difference between firs and cedars. Following the racing Skagit River, the path makes a short loop among giant Douglas firs and western red cedars, which rival the California redwood for size and beauty. A mile beyond, we entered a misty forest on the gentle Trail of the Cedars. We stopped briefly in Newhalem, where the National Park Service operates a visitor center, and picked up a free guide to day hikes. And on the high cliffs, hundreds of waterfalls cascade down-which is how the range got its name. Drenched by Pacific storms, the western slopes are covered in a dense, eerily dark forest dripping with moss. More than a dozen soar above 8,000 feet even the most experienced hikers can find them intimidating. Within it, North Cascades National Park has the sheerest, most rugged peaks. The Cascade mountain range is a 700-mile-long chain stretching from northern California into British Columbia. The drive got under way inauspiciously as my wife, Sandy, and I negotiated the traffic on I-5/I-405 north out of Seattle's urban clutter.īut as soon as we exited east onto the North Cascades Highway (State Route 20), the road opened up, and a seemingly impenetrable wall of soaring peaks loomed ahead. And that holds true even in summer, when hikers find ample ammunition for snowball fights after only 20 minutes of climbing up any number of trails.Ī four-day, 600-mile-loop drive out of Seattle is the ideal way to take in Mount Rainier, along with its national park neighbor, North Cascades National Park an Old West mining town that's working hard to preserve its history a bustling lake resort and a curious village with Bavarian aspirations. Together they total 35 square miles, making it the country's largest single-mountain ice mass outside of Alaska. The upper slope of its highest peak, Mount Rainier, a 14,410-foot-high volcano in the Cascade mountain range, is covered with 26 glaciers and scores of snowfields. Washington State's Mount Rainier National Park is a rugged landscape of waterfalls, glaciers, and lakes.
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