North Cascades National Park

These mountains are calling for you. Less than three hours from Seattle, an alpine landscape beckons. Discover communities of life adapted to persistent moisture in the west and recurrent fire in the east — all sensitive to climate change. Explore jagged peaks crowned by more than 300 glaciers. Contemplate waterfalls cascading into deep valleys. Help steward the ecological heart of the Cascades. North Cascades National Park Complex spans the Cascade Crest from the temperate rainforest of the wet west-side to the dry ponderosa pine ecosystem of the east. The park encompasses landscapes with over 9,000 feet of vertical relief. There results a high diversity of plants, over 1,600 species so far identified, and many other organisms adapted to a wide spectrum of habitats. The relatively new mountains, glaciers and streams of North Cascades lie near a dynamic interface of tectonic plates and provide an opportunity to study geologic processes unfolding through time. Geologists and others seek answers to questions of global climate change, mountain building and erosion, volcanism, glaciation, stream dynamics, and more. North Cascades National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the state of Washington. The park is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. Several national wilderness areas and British Columbia parkland adjoin the National Park. The park features rugged mountain peaks. Less than three hours from Seattle, an alpine landscape beckons. Discover communities of life adapted to persistent moisture in the west and recurrent fire in the east — all sensitive to climate change. Explore jagged peaks crowned by more than 300 glaciers. Contemplate waterfalls cascading into deep valleys. Help steward the ecological heart of the Cascades. These mountains are calling for you. North Cascades National Park Service Complex includes 684,000 acres near the crest of the Cascade Mountains from the Canadian border south to Lake Chelan.