Geography of the North Cascades

Template:Short description The geography of the North Cascades describes a range of rugged mountains in British Columbia, Canada and Washington, United States. In Canada, the range is officially named the Cascade Mountains but is commonly referred to as the Canadian Cascades.

File:Sahale Peak.jpg

Sahale Peak

Extent

The Fraser River and Similkameen River in British Columbia form the northern boundary of the North Cascades. On the east, the Okanogan River and the Columbia River bound the range. On the west within the United States, the foothills of the range are separated by a narrow coastal plain from Puget Sound, whereas in Canada there are few if any foothills and the range drops steeply to the floodplain of the Fraser Lowland.

The southern boundary of the North Cascades is less definite. For the purposes of this article, it will be taken as US Highway 2, running over Stevens Pass, or equivalently, the Skykomish River, Nason Creek, and the lower Wenatchee River. This roughly follows Beckey's division.Template:Rp Sometimes the southern boundary is defined by Snoqualmie Pass and the approximate route of Interstate 90.

Subranges

File:Mount Despair 25951.JPG

Mount Despair, located within North Cascades National Park

There are various formally named subranges, and some informally named ones. Formally named subranges include the:

• Okanagan Range
• Hozameen Range
  • Bedded Range
• Skagit Range
  • Cheam Range ("Four Brothers")
• Picket Range

Informally named ranges include the Coquihalla Range, which lies between the Coquihalla River and the Fraser Canyon south of an imaginary line roughly connecting Coquihalla Pass with the town of Boston Bar. The Coquihalla Range includes a group of horn-like summits known as the Anderson River Group, also known as the Llamoid Group due to conferred names such as Vicuna Peak, Yak Peak, Guanaco Peak, etc.

Protected areas

File:HikingIntoMeadow 1150H.jpg

A group of hikers in E.C. Manning Provincial Park.

The North Cascades include various protected areas. Chief among the areas in Washington is North Cascades National Park, occupying much of the area between Mount Baker and the Cascade divide. Contiguous with the Park are Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. Designated wilderness areas in the range include:

• Mount Baker Wilderness
• Glacier Peak Wilderness
• Boulder River Wilderness
• Henry M. Jackson Wilderness,
• Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness
• Noisy-Diobsud Wilderness
• Pasayten Wilderness
• Stephen Mather Wilderness
• Wild Sky Wilderness

In British Columbia, protected areas include

• Skagit Valley Provincial Park
• E.C. Manning Provincial Park
• Cascade Recreation Area
• Cathedral Provincial Park
• Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park

Notable peaks

The following North Cascades peaks are notable for their height (absolute elevation):

Mountain	Height		Coordinates	Prominence		Parent mountain	First ascent
	(ft)	(m)		(ft)	(m)
Mount Baker				Mount Rainier	1868 by Edmund T. Coleman and party
Glacier Peak				Mount Rainier	1898 by Thomas Gerdine
Bonanza Peak				Glacier Peak	1937 by Curtis James, Barrie James, Joe Leuthold
Mount Fernow				Bonanza Peak	1932 by Oscar Pennington, Hermann Ulrichs
Goode Mountain				Bonanza Peak	1936 by Wolf Bauer, Philip Dickett, Joe Halwax, Jack Hossack, George MacGowan

(The above table uses a topographic prominence cutoff of , in order to list only highly independent peaks.)

File:Boulder Glacier 3737.JPG

Mount Baker with Boulder Glacier in foreground.

The following peaks are notable for their topographic prominence:

Mountain	Height		Prominence		Parent mountain
	(ft)	(m)	(ft)	(m)
Mount Baker			Mount Rainier
Glacier Peak			Mount Rainier
Round Mountain			Mount Baker
Mount Spickard			Mount Baker
Welch Peak			Robinson Mountain
Three Fingers			Glacier Peak
Mount Shuksan			Mount Baker
Remmel Mountain			Mount Lago
Mount Prophet			Three Fingers
Mount Outram			Hozomeen Mountain
Mount Lago			Silver Star Mountain

The following peaks are notable for their large, steep rise above local terrain. Peaks are listed in descending order by elevation.

File:Jack Mountain North Cascades.jpg

Jack Mountain

File:HozomeenLake.jpg

Hozomeen Mountain from Hozomeen Lake

Mountain	Height
	(ft)	(m)
Mount Baker
Glacier Peak
Goode Mountain
Mount Shuksan
Jack Mountain
North Gardner Mountain
Mount Redoubt
Eldorado Peak
Luna Peak
Johannesburg Mountain
Agnes Mountain
Hozomeen Mountain
Slesse Mountain
American Border Peak
Mount Blum
Sloan Peak
Colonial Peak
Mount Triumph
Pugh Mountain
Davis Peak
Whitehorse Mountain
Baring Mountain

Highest waterfalls

Template:See The North Cascades are known for having many extremely tall glacial-fed waterfalls; the ten highest measured waterfalls are listed.

Waterfall	Height		Stream	Location	Coordinates
	(ft)	(m)
Colonial Creek Falls		Colonial Creek	Diablo Lake
Johannesburg Falls		Unnamed	Below Johannesburg Peak, near Mount Torment
Sulphide Creek Falls		Sulphide Creek	Eastern boundary of North Cascades National Park
Silver Lake Falls		Silver Creek	Near Mount Spickard in North Cascades National Park
Blum Basin Falls		Blum Creek	Below Mount Blum
Boston Creek Falls		Boston Creek	Near North Fork Cascade River
Torment Falls		Torment Creek	Near North Fork Cascade River
Green Lake Falls		Unnamed fork of Bacon Creek	Near Green Lake in North Cascades National Park
Depot Creek Falls		Depot Creek	Near Mount Redoubt, North Cascades National Park
Rainy Lake Falls		Unnamed	Rainy Lake, Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest

Many tall waterfalls occur where meltwater from mountain glaciers drop down a headwall, which are common occurrences in the North Cascades. Many waterfalls, despite their great height, are non-notable as they are not clearly visible and often have low volume. Seahpo Peak Falls, despite its great height at nearly , is an example of one of these waterfalls. A few notable exceptions do occur; Sulphide Creek Falls occurs where meltwaters from two of the largest Mount Shuksan glaciers are forced through a narrow chute over a headwall at the head of Sulphide Valley.

Features

Geographical features in the area of the North Cascades National Park can be found in this image map: