The News from North Cascades

North Cascades Park Needs Additional Advocates

In the Northwest, we dream big dreams, and persistent dreamers can leave an imprint and legacy.

The two words come to mind with the 40th anniversary of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. It's there thanks to citizens who outfought the timber industry, outmaneuvered federal bureaucrats and worked tirelessly to persuade Congress.

Anglers Wary of North Cascades Plan to Limit Fishing

Not much comes easy in the precipitous ice-and-rock geography of North Cascades National Park -- not the hiking, not the high-lakes fishing, and across the park's 40 years of existence, not even fish management.

This is what I'm thinking during the sweaty hike out of the stunning cirque that embraces Monogram Lake, where I've spent a couple hours catching and releasing dozens of pretty cutthroat trout with two mountain anglers who fear that soon there will be no fish in the park's high lakes. Whether trout should be in these lakes at all has been an issue since the park was created in 1968, and it is coming to a head with the release in July of the park's voluminous "Mountain Lakes Fishery Management Plan."

Pot Farm Found in Park

A park service pilot on a routine flight over the North Cascades National Park service area helped discover a large marijuana farm worth nearly $48 million -- the first such grow operation found in a national park site in the state.

Officials said the farm, which law enforcement officials raided this week, contained more than 16,700 plants. It was well established and resembled the elaborate grow sites run by Mexican drug traffickers plaguing national parks in California, authorities said.

Happy trails, favorite hikes: North Cascades NP turning 40

A road runs through it — and Rick McGuire is grateful that the framers of North Cascades National Park, a "complex" of parkland and recreation areas that marks its 40th anniversary on Oct. 2, were obligated to stop at a single highway, scenic State Route 20.

"The Forest Service would have put roads up almost every valley if it wasn't for people like Harvey Manning," says McGuire, a board member of the North Cascades Conservation Council (NCCC), a group pivotal to the park's creation (with Manning, the influential hiking-guide author, among its ranks in the early 1960s). "That absolutely was the plan."

North Cascades National Park Turns the Big 4-0

It’s difficult to describe the majesty of North Cascades National Park. Words like magnificent, vast and rugged only hint at the awesome nature of this portion of the expansive Cascade Range.

Believe it or not, this pristine wilderness, spotted with archeological sites and ancient fossil remains, is one of America’s least-visited national parks!

The park is tucked away in the northwest corner of Washington State and comprised of one national park and two national recreation areas. Together, these three – North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area – form the core of one of the largest and wildest wilderness areas in the contiguous United States.

In addition to its stunning natural splendor, the park complex offers a variety of recreational opportunities within its 684,000 acres, including nearly 400 miles of hiking trails, turquoise lakes ideal for boating, world-class mountains for the serious climber, cross-country ski trails, hundreds of back-country ski trails and campsites, rivers teeming with fish for anglers as well as a variety of ranger programs.

The Cascade Pass, once used as a travel route by Native Americans, is one of the park’s most sought-out spots and can be accessed by a four-mile trail. Climbers seek out the North and South Picket Ranges, along with El Dorado Peak and the surrounding mountains, due to their glacial formations and technical rock. Photographers head to Mount Shuksan, one of the most photographed mountains in the country and the second highest peak in the park.

August is the perfect time to visit the Cascades. Not only is the weather exceptional, but later this year the park will celebrate its fortieth anniversary! In celebration, the Northwest Regional Office of NPCA invites park-goers to explore what makes the North Cascades so special. Join them for ranger-led hikes and discussions. Advance registration is required, so please call Dave Patton at 206-903-1444 x22 or send him an email dpatton@npca.org to reserve a spot.

A little slice of heaven

For most paddlers, the tantalizing jade-green waters of Diablo Lake are merely a fluid path to a bigger lake deeper in the North Cascades remoteness, not much more than a pretty prelude.

But if you spend a night or two here, Diablo – "devil" in Spanish – will prove much more than just the way to somewhere else. If you sit on the shore at one of Diablo's three cozy boat-in campgrounds in the evening, watching the trout jump and the waves lap, you just might feel you'd rather be nowhere else.

Hikers should expect plenty of snow on higher routes

Hikers should expect lots of snow on mountain trails still, with rangers saying that higher-elevation routes in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and North Cascades National Park are two weeks to one month behind in terms of melting out.

Higher than normal snowpack coupled with lower than normal temperatures well into spring means that, in general, those going over routes at the 5,000- to 6,000-foot level need to be comfortable traveling on snow and have poles or ice axes and route-finding skills.

Body found in North Cascades National Park was Vancouver, BC, man

The body found in North Cascades National Park was a man who apparently attempted to walk across the border from Canada in midwinter snow.

Whatcom County Coroner Gary Goldfogel said Wednesday that the man was not a hiker and it's not clear what he was doing. He apparently died in February of exposure and malnutrition.

Whatcom County sheriff's Chief Deputy Jeff Park says there is no evidence that the man was a victim or a crime or involved in a crime such as smuggling drugs. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was notified.