1. North Cascades National Park
Est. October 2nd 1968
To preserve the majestic mountain scenery, snowfields, glaciers, alpine meadows, cascading waterfalls, and other unique natural features in the North Cascade Range. The region is frequently called the North American Alps.

2. National Park Service Complex?
The North Cascades National Park Act also designated Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas. Located adjacent to the North Cascades and easily accessible to visitors of the park these recreation areas make up a National Park Service Complex
Lake Chelan
Ross Lake from Desolation Peak

3. Park Specs.
Located in Washington state on the North Cascades highway (Highway 20).
The park itself covers 789 square miles.
The two recreation areas collectively occupy an additional 281 square miles.
For a total of 1,070 square miles or 684,800 acres of land.
All is managed through the National Park Service.

4. Human History in the Cascades!
The region has been continuously inhabited for at least the last 8- 10,000 years
The Skagits, Nlaka’ pamux, Chelan, Okanogan and Wenatchi tribes lived partly or year-round in the eastern sections of the North Cascades for 1000’s of years.
In the 1850’s prospectors began searching for gold in the Cascades and in the 1870’s when it was finally found, miners and their family's then arrived. Over the next few decades when the gold rush ended mining took a backburner until the start of WW1 then again in WW2.
Little of the park was commercially logged. Some logging started in the 1870’s and petered out by the 1880’s due to lack of easy access.
Fur traders, traveling on foot and by canoe, were among the first Euro- Americans to venture into the North Cascades wilderness in the late 1700s.

5. What can you find in the park?
Deer at Cascade Pass
North Cascades offers over identified species of plant
Home to approximately 75 mammal species in 20 families including Grizzly Bear, Gray Wolf, Lynx, Black-Tailed Deer, Fisher and Wolverines and Douglas Squirrels.
Around 21 species of reptiles and amphibians representing four orders
Roughly 200 species of birds in 38 families
At least 28 species of fish
Recent surveys have documented over 500 types of land insects and approximately 250 aquatic invertebrate species.

6. What to do in the park! Picture Lake
The Cascades are full of rich activities!
Climbing
Hiking
Biking
Horseback riding
Swimming
Bird watching
Bear monitoring
Ranger talks
Boating
Fishing
Guided tours
Ecology
Geogrophy