The Skagit River—Gateway to the North Cascades

The broad, green Skagit River, which courses down a fertile valley from thousands of snowfields and a hundred glaciers, was the original thoroughfare into the North Cascades. Trails used by the Skagit tribe became the pack-horse routes of prospectors and, later, a railway to support the building of hydroelectric dams on the river during the 1920s. Modern visitors follow the asphalt ribbon of Washington Highway 20, which finally breached the mountain fastness in 1972.

The Skagit Valley is a broad and lush basin fed by the abundant rains of Puget Sound. It is filled with fruit orchards and dairy farms, and bordered by broad clear-cuts scythed from the forests by an aggressive timber industry. Surrounding the valley are the peripheral ranges of the North Cascades, where a multitude of short trails lead to the mountaintops. The climate here is distinctly maritime; fogs and rainstorms are defining elements of the landscape. Abundant moisture creates ideal growing conditions for conifers, such as mountain hemlock and western red cedar, which attain mighty proportions in isolated pockets that were never logged off. Especially impressive stands occur at Rockport State Park and along the upper reaches of the Baker River Highway. Above timberline are lush meadows guarded by peaks where snowfields linger year-round. There are relatively few developed trails into the high country, though, and these are plagued by crowds on the weekends.

Because the Skagit Valley is close to both Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia, it receives quite a bit of weekend tourism. Many visitors never venture far from their cars, and the short hikes in the surrounding mountains are well-suited to the tight schedules of a whirlwind tour. Seek out the National Park Service ranger station at Marblemount, which is the information center for day hikes and backcountry excursions in the North Cascades National Park complex. This is where most backcountry permits are issued. Interpretive displays and presentations can be found at the large visitor center just south of Newhalem. Visitors approaching from the west can also obtain information at the joint Forest Service-Park Service station at Sedro-Woolley. The towns of Burlington and Mount Vernon provide all the services of a modern city, while a more limited selection of supplies can be found at Concrete and Marblemount. Rockport has gas and a country store, while Newhalem is a company town built by Seattle City Light for its dam workers and has only a small mercantile store.

Car campers will find public camping at Rockport State Park as well as large park campgrounds outside Newhalem. There are a number of Forest Service campgrounds along the Baker River Highway, a paved thoroughfare that originates west of Concrete, and along the Cascade River Road, a gravel trunk road that runs southeast from Marblemount. User fees are now in effect for all trailheads that fall within the Mount Baker–Snoqualmie National Forest.