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Diablo Lake
Just south of Ross Lake, Diablo Lake is held back by the 389ft Diablo Dam. A pullout off Hwy 20 known as the Diablo Dam Overlook provides incredible views of the turquoise-green lake framed by glacier-capped peaks.
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Washington Cascades
Grafted onto one of the more temperamental segments of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Washington Cascades are a rugged, spectacular mountain range capped by five potentially lethal volcanoes: Mt Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and – fieriest of all – Mt St Helens.
Renowned for their world record–breaking precipitation and copious crevasse-covered glaciers, the highest Cascade peaks are vast stand-alone mountains that dominate almost every vista in the western state and create scrubby, almost desert-like conditions further east.
Protected within a string of overlapping wilderness areas and national parks, the mountains offer some of the most awe-inspiring backcountry adventures in the US, if you don't mind bedding down in a tent and liberally dousing yourself in bug repellent. For the less outdoor-attuned, rarefied Cascadian beauty can be glimpsed through the windows of cars, buses and trains, or enjoyed in a handful of classic 'parkitecture' lodges.
Top attractions
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Washington Cascades.
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Paradise
Home to numerous trailheads and the starting point for most summit hikes, Paradise also holds the iconic Paradise Inn (built in 1916) and the massive, informative Henry M Jackson Visitor Center, where a cutting-edge museum has hands-on exhibits on everything from flora to glacier formation, and shows a must-see 21-minute film entitled Mount Rainier: Restless Giant. Park naturalists lead free interpretive hikes from the visitor center daily in summer, and snowshoe walks on winter weekends.
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Ape Cave
Ape Cave is a 2-mile-long lava tube formed 2000 years ago by a lava flow that followed a deep watercourse. It's the longest lava tube in the western hemisphere. Hikers can walk and scramble on either the 0.8-mile Lower Ape Cave Trail or the 1.5-mile Upper Ape Cave Trail, which requires some navigating over rock piles and through narrower passages. A Northwest Forest Pass ($30/5 per year/day) is required to park at the trailhead.
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Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Area
The Bald Eagle area is essentially the 10-mile stretch of the Skagit River between Rockport and Marblemount. After salmon spawn, their spent carcasses become meals for the more than 600 eagles that winter here. January is the best time to view the eagles, which are present roughly from November through early March.
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Mt Rainier National Park
The USA's fifth-highest peak outside Alaska, majestic Mt Rainier is also one of the country's most beguiling mountains. Part of a 368-sq-mile national park (inaugurated in 1899), the mountain's snowcapped summit and forest-covered foothills boast numerous hiking trails, swaths of flower-carpeted meadows and an alluring peak that presents a formidable challenge for aspiring climbers. The park website includes downloadable maps and descriptions of 50 park trails, plus links to current weather and road conditions.
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Windy Ridge Viewpoint
Windy Ridge Viewpoint is a highlight of the remote eastside entrance to Mt St Helens. Here visitors get a palpable, if eerie, sense of the destruction wrought by the 1980 blast, with felled forests, desolate mountain slopes and the surreal sight of tree-clogged Spirit Lake, once one of the premier resorts in the South Cascades. There are toilets and a snack bar at the parking lot. Forest Pass available online or from ranger stations.
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Ross Lake
Ross Lake stretches across 23 miles north toward the Canadian border. In keeping with the wild terrain, it's accessible only by trail or water. Part of the Ross Lake National Recreation Area, the lake formed as a result of the Ross Dam, an ambitious hydroelectric project from 1937 that was designed to generate electricity for the fast-growing Seattle area.
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North Cascades National Park
The wildest of all Pacific Northwest wildernesses, the lightly trodden, 1000-sq-mile North Cascades National Park (inaugurated in 1968) has no major settlements and only one road. The names of the dramatic mountains pretty much set the tone: Desolation Peak, Jagged Ridge, Mt Despair and Mt Terror. Not surprisingly, the region offers some of the best backcountry adventures outside of Alaska.
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Johnston Ridge Observatory
Situated at the end of Hwy 504 and looking directly into the mouth of the Mt St Helens crater, the observatory has exhibits that depict the geologic events surrounding the 1980 blast and how they advanced the science of volcano forecasting and monitoring. The paved 1-mile round-trip Eruption Trail offers once-in-a-lifetime views toward the crater.
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