The North Cascades National Park, located in the US state of Washington, welcomes around one million visitors every year. In its impressive and beautiful natural landscape of 2,042 km², nature lovers will find everything they want to see and experience. North Cascades National Park was established on October 2, 1968. See directoryaah for museums in Washington.
The North Cascades National Park is a classic hiking park. It has an alpine landscape. With over 300 glaciers in the park, it is one of the national parks with the largest number of glaciers. Lush and dense coniferous forests stand on the slopes of the mountains. On the east side there are mostly mixed forests.
The highest point in the park is MountShuksan at 2,781 meters.
History of the NorthCascades National Park
It is assumed that people lived here in prehistoric times in the area of today’s North Cascades National Park, but there is no evidence or documentation for this.
The first document comes from Alexander Ross in 1814. He was the first white man to cross the Cascade Pass. He worked for a fur trading company and was hired by them to find a way across the Cascade Mountains. He recorded his experiences in writing in a kind of diary.
When gold was discovered in 1858 in what is now the North Cascades National Park, the gold rush broke out here too.
In 1860 the area was measured and some military units came here afterwards. They had the painful task of clearing the area of Indians, as they said at the time. When this happened, big game hunters came here as tourists. They shot grizzly bears and mountain goats. The animal population suffered extremely as a result. The situation eased somewhat when ore was discovered in 1880. So the next seekers came after the gold rush. Since 1885 there has been major deforestation. The wood industry left its traces that are still visible today. However, it was quickly recognized that nature was suffering from the strain. Protection began as early as the 19th century.
Wildlife of the NorthCascades National Park
The wildlife in North Cascades National Park is abundant. It’s especially nice to know that there are still grizzly bears here. They share their habitat with moose, deer and mountain goats. Black bears are also represented, as are lynxes, coyotes, foxes and wolverines.
The smaller residents, such as ground squirrels and chipmunks, or marmots and mountain hares, tend to be on the west side of the park.
No team has yet been commissioned to list the birds. Only 150 species of birds were collected. If you find and discover a bird species that is not listed during a visit, you are welcome to inform the park management of this discovery. She is very grateful for such advice.
Flora of the NorthCascades National Park
In the North Cascades National Park you can find, on the one hand, the dense coniferous forest and, on the other, lush flower meadows. In the forest area there are mainly ferns, mosses and mushrooms. At higher altitudes, the forest is no longer so dense. There are mainly sycamore and sedge here. Visually, there is a picture of a mixture between rainforest and pine trees.
