My Planned Hike Was Derailed by Wildfires, but North Cascades National Park Was Still Gorgeous

Just about anyone who knows me is privy to how much I love our national parks and my desire to visit them all (I'm currently at 40 out of 63). I live in Minnesota, so getting to most of the national parks in the country involves quite a bit of traveling for me. Often, I try to combine a trip to a park with another reason to visit a place so I can maximize my resources. As it turns out, I recently had occasion to visit Seattle, and the only national park in Washington that I had not yet visited was North Cascades National Park. So, I built in an extra day to visit this beautiful and remote park... but it didn't go exactly as I'd planned.

Known for its high peaks, glaciers, and the beautiful Skagit River Valley, North Cascades National Park is unusual because it consists almost entirely of rugged backcountry wilderness. Sticklers are happy to point out that most of the park's frontcountry amenities - like roads - technically lie within either Ross Lake National Recreation Area to the north or Lake Chelan National Recreation Area to the south. This is why the annual visitor totals to the national park are so low. In 2023, for example, only 40,000 visitors crossed the boundary into North Cascades National Park, making it one of the least visited units in the entire system.

Because I only had a Saturday to spend in the park, I planned to head toward the Gorge Lake Campground and then hike either the Pyramid Lake or Sourdough Mountain Trail out of the recreation area and into the park proper. (According to the terrain map on AllTrails Plus, these trails would get me into the park relatively quickly and were unlikely to kill me with extreme elevation gains).

But on my drive toward the park, I started to see signs of trouble. Literally: Temporary traffic signs were warning of road closures due to wildfires. By the time I drove past the park sign and up the valley of the impossibly-blue Skagit River, I started to notice the haze that was hanging over the peaks, and the smell of burning wood stung my eyes and nostrils when I left the hermetically-sealed confines of my rental car.

I stopped at the visitor center near Newhalem, where I flashed my America the Beautiful Pass, got my North Cascades Unigrid map, and stamped my National Parks Passport (a must!). There was also a large park map on the wall showing five active wildfires in and around the park. Three directly affected the area that I was visiting. Due to the fires, the main road through Ross Lake NRA, Washington 20, was closed before Gorge Lake Campground, which also closed due to the fires.

I was disappointed by this turn of events, but I was there, so I set off to see what I could. Driving through Newhalem, I passed the staging area for the wilderness firefighters who had traveled to the park to battle the blazes. Tents, porta-potties, and water stations filled every green space, including picnic areas and baseball fields. Trucks from the U.S. Forest Service, NPS, and state agencies - I even saw one from the Minnesota DNR - were parked everywhere in the village.

But what I could see of the park was absolutely beautiful. Towering peaks with glaciers and waterfalls, all blanketed with dense, green Pacific Northwest forest. I was on the valley floor, but the park was just a few hundred vertical feet above me. I knew when I looked out toward a glacier or traced the flow of a waterfall that I was seeing North Cascades NP - it was just out of reach of my feet on that day. But the views were some of the prettiest I've seen.

I found a short loop trail - the Gorge Overlook Trail - and hiked it twice. Moss-covered soil and rocks dampened sound, so at times, all I could hear was the tumbling water of a nearby waterfall. Evergreens grew tall and straight, lending the trail an almost otherworldly feel. Occasionally, the forest would give way to views of the rugged park on the far side of the Skagit, its turquoise, glacial water reflecting the peaks on its surface.

Although I have a passport stamp saying I was there, I never actually stepped foot into North Cascades National Park - but it was within my sight the entire time I was in the Skagit River Valley and the Ross Lake National Recreation Area. I will definitely have to try again. For up-to-date information on the park, visit the North Cascades National Park page on the NPS website. Have you visited North Cascades National Park? Be sure to let us know, and tell us about your favorite national park in Washington.