Thornton Lakes, North Cascades National Park

The northern Cascades, looking south from the Thornton Lakes area.

2016 is the centennial year of the National Park Service, and with an annual pass in possession, I’m making some effort to visit parks wherever I can this year. Ideally, I’d have the luxury of a whole summer off to explore parks throughout the west, but such an extended vacation isn’t feasible.

I did have two weeks off to travel to the Pacific Northwest in July and the last wilderness stop I made was North Cascades National Park in northern Washington. It was a first time visit for me, as was Mt. Rainier in central Washington earlier that week. North Cascades encompasses two areas – a northern section of the park which extends to the Canadian border and a southern area bordered by two national forests and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. Ross Lake National Recreation Area bisects the two park units, and is generally the gateway to the whole region. Almost all points of access to the National Park itself are by foot trail; in fact, there are only two dirt roads that lead anywhere directly into the park. Most of the park is also part of the Stephen Mather Wilderness.

The southern-most of the Thornton Lakes.

The terrain is rugged – forest, exposed rock at higher elevations, and many glaciers. The park has over 300 glaciers, a large fraction of all those found in the lower 48 states. Using aerial photography and measurements at several glaciers, researchers have been assessing their rates of change. Like other montane regions, the apparent effects of climate change are alarming: at North Cascades, total glacier area is estimated to have declined by about 40% since the mid 1800s.

I hiked into the park along the trail that leads to Thornton Lakes in the northern unit. The first 3 kilometers or so beyond the trailhead, there was little ascent as the trail went north and then south following the contour of a valley through mid-elevation forest. Thereafter it turned north again, but with significant elevation gain up the slope of the mountain. It was a challenging day hike, finally terminating on the eastern flank of a basin that held the southernmost of the lakes. From this relatively high vantage point, I could see the snow-capped peaks to the south, probably in the southern unit of the park.

The slopes of the lake basin were steep and a creek tumbled into the north end of the lake off in the distance. The trail down to the lake was likewise steep and I only went down partway, not reaching the lake. From the distance, however, I could see a constant stream of concentric ripples radiating out over the water’s surface. Perhaps fish were rising periodically to the surface to feed on insects.

Ripples on the lake.

One day hike of course was only a tiny sampling of this large and seemingly spectacular part of the Cascade Range. I look forward to another chance to hike or backpack into this rugged and remote wilderness.

References

National Park Service. Undated. North Cascades National Park map.

National Park Service, North Cascades National Park website.