North Cascades National Park

This place is somewhat of an afterthought for those visiting the Pacific Northwest national parks. While the other two Washington parks are incredible, this one is worth checking out (and has one of the cooler NPS signs). The problem is many people think they have visited North Cascades National Park when in fact they haven’t. Highway 20 runs right through the middle of the “park” and has all the sights most people remember Diablo Lake, the Powerhouse, and Ladder Creek Falls. We will talk about these below but none of these are in North Cascades National Park. They are instead in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area with the North Unit and South Unit of the actual National Park on either side. If you want to truly visit the National Park, you have to work for it. In our opinion, it will be well worth the effort.

Our visits: Aug 2018

When to Go

We visited in the month of August and that seemed about right. July or September would also probably work, but it is certainly a tight window if you don’t want to be hiking around in snow. Even in August, we could clearly see snowpacks not far off the trails so July could even be questionable. The other thing to be aware of here is forest fires. We struggled with visibility on some of our hikes due to smoke blowing in from nearby fires. This is always going to be a risk in August and September in the Pacific Northwest. With a little luck to get the right conditions this can be a memorable park.

How to Get Here

North Cascades is located about 2 hours north of Seattle on a good traffic day. Your best bet is to fly into Seattle and drive north from there. This can be part of a larger National Park vacation given Mount Rainier and Olympic are also within a couple hours of Seattle. Another option would be to fly into Vancouver, Canada and drive south from there.

Trip Length

Assuming you are not going to be doing any back country hiking (of which there is plenty here as most of the park is wilderness), this is about a 2 or 3-day National Park. At least one of those days will be spent in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area mentioned above as there are a lot of interesting sights there.

Where to Stay

The only lodging quasi inside the park is Ross Lake Resort (starting at $220/night in 2020) so if you are looking for a hotel, you are going to be staying to the west of the park most likely as there are several smaller towns with a few budget options. The farther west you go, the more likely you are to find some of the familiar chain hotels. A better option if you have the gear is to camp in or around North Cascades. We actually camped right on the shores of Diablo Lake at the Colonial Creek South Campground for $16/night in 2018. That is not bad considering Diablo Lake is consistently recognized as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world.

What to Do

As we talked about above, when most people say they have visited North Cascades National Park it’s likely they haven’t because they probably spent time at Diablo Lake, touring the Powerhouse or hiking the nearby Ladder Creek Falls. All of these things are in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area rather than the National Park. With that said you should absolutely spend a day checking these places out.

Diablo Lake Boat Tour – 2 hours – $30/person (in 2018)

While most people view Diablo Lake from the overlook on the highway (which you should as it is an incredible view), far fewer people realize you can actually get out on a boat tour for a couple hours on the lake. Seattle City Light and Skagit Tours offers a two-hour cruise around the lake culminating in viewing the Ross Lake Dam.

Ladder Creek Falls – 0.4 miles RT, Easy, 30 minutes

This trail is located right behind the powerhouse and is well worth your time. The falls are extremely powerful, and it is also a relaxing walk in the forest surrounding the falls. While we haven’t done this, a popular activity in the Newhalem area is hike this trail at night as there are hydro powered lights all along the trail so that you know where you are going.

Since you are not yet in the park you might as well do a couple other things outside the park as well. You can continue on Highway 20 to the east into the Okanogan National Forest and you will eventually come to Washington Pass Overlook which on a clear day gives you an incredible view. We were not that lucky due to fires in the area, but it was still an interesting area anyway. If you head back the way you came, you will come across Rainy Pass where there are a couple great hikes.

Rainy Lake Trail – 2.0 miles RT, Easy, 1 hour

This is a nice walk through the forest culminating in amazing views of Rainy Lake including snowcapped mountains in the background and waterfalls coming down into the lake. The lake is right on the border of the National Forest and the National Park, so you are pretty close at this point.  Unfortunately, on our trip the smoke got in the way. While we could see the lake and make out the waterfalls we couldn’t see much of the mountains. We will try again another time!

Ross Dam Trail – 1.5 miles RT, Moderate, 1.5 hours

You’ll start the hike meandering through the forest and quickly notice that you are doing a lot of downhill walking which makes sense as you work your way down towards the dam. However, you’ll get that dreaded feeling as you continue downwards that you are going to have to come all the way back up as well! In reality, it is only about 500 feet of elevation change, but it is a short hike, so it feels like more than that. Once you reach the edge of the woods, you’ll get a great view of Ross Dam from above. You’ll continue your hike on a gravel road for 5-8 minutes which will curve around and take you out onto the dam itself. You will have great perspective here of just how large this dam is along with the valley below where the powerhouse is located.

Thunder Knob Trail – 3.6 miles RT, Moderate, 2.5 hours

This is another forest hike with about 425 feet of elevation gain. On this trail you hike up to start which is our preferred direction! There is decent cover for the majority of the hike, but there are some exposed areas as you get towards the top. Make sure to apply sunscreen! While the hike through the forest is nice it is the views of Diablo Lake at the top that make this hike worthwhile. There are actually two viewpoints at the top with about a 2-minute walk between them. In our opinion, the very first viewpoint has the best views of the lake and surrounding mountains so if you only have time to stop at one choose the first one.

Maple Pass Trail (Heather Point) – 7.1 miles RT, Strenuous, 4+ hours

We came back in September 2022 to do this hike. This might be one of the better hikes in the whole state (this is a trend in this area as you see below) but it is a challenge! You will need to climb almost 2,200 feet but will witness stunning views of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. We camped nearby and got an early start for the trailhead. Reviews on the AllTrails site state that if you arrive around 8am, you’ll be parking on the road and adding to the 7+ mile hike. They weren’t wrong. We had been wanting to do this hike for years and it didn’t disappoint. We had heard that the second half of the loop really isn’t worth the effort (rugged downhill for about 3.5 miles). We decided to do the full loop and see for ourselves and can agree that if you’re interested in doing this for the views and want to cut mileage and strain on your knees, you can get to the top and make this an out and back instead of a loop. We feel incredibly grateful for the weather we had. Bluebird day with no signs of wildfires. Pack a lunch, sunscreen, bug spray, and plenty of water and enjoy.

OK – are you ready to actually enter the National Park now? There is actually only one road into the park and to get to it you need to head back west towards Marblemount. From there, you are going to head southeast on the Cascade River Road which is a really rough road that we traversed in a Hyundai Sonata.  It is doable, but please go slow. We actually hit a really large pothole at one point and thought for sure we had blown a tire, but it luckily turned out to be fine. If you have 4WD you will be fine. After passing some campgrounds and waterfalls, you will eventually reach a parking lot for Cascade Pass Trail.

Cascade Pass Trail – 7 miles RT, Moderate, 4 hours

This is the most popular trail in the park by far partly because it is the most accessible, but also because the views here are stunning. We came on a cloudy/foggy morning which certainly hid some of the views as you can see in the pictures below but even with that, the views were still stunning. We actually think with a clear day that this hike might be one of the best into the entire state of Washington which is saying a lot. It was so foggy when we got out of the car in the parking lot, we didn’t even realize there was a huge snowpack right next to us. Instead, this became obvious on our descent when the fog had mostly cleared. You will have to climb 1,800 feet for the payoff, so it is certainly a workout. We did get a few cloud breaks while we were eating lunch up at Cascade Pass which gave us a couple picture opportunities – but nothing like you would get on a clear day. You also have the option to continue on to some other destinations from here if you choose which we may consider on a return trip.

We have not yet made it into the North Unit of the park, but we will figure out a way to do that on our return. It will require hiking in as there are no roads into that section of the park. Overall, this is a beautiful place which few people ever get to see due to how remote the actual park is. It will require some additional planning compared to the more visited parks, but it is totally worth it.