North Cascades National Park

One of the least visited national parks in the system, North Cascades is truly a hidden gem in Northern Washington. Add in Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, and the North Cascades Complex was yet another highlight of an amazing trip.

Read our North Cascades itinerary

We took North Cascades in two parts. First, we visited Stehekin to stay at the North Cascades Lodge. Then we drove around to Newhalem and Marblemount to see the more popular part of the park.

You cannot drive to Stehekin. No roads connect the town to the outside world, and that is what makes it amazing. In doing our research, we discovered Stehekin because that’s the location of the North Cascades Lodge. To get to the town and the lodge requires some planning and patience.

The most popular method is by boat from Chelan, Washington. Chelan and Stehekin are 55 miles apart on opposite ends of Lake Chelan. A 2.5-hour boat ride provides beautiful views of the mountains that rise up around this slender lake. The lake is natural, but was dammed in 1927 causing the water level to rise 11 feet.

Another option to get to Stehekin is by sea plane, which can be chartered from the Seattle area. And the only other way is to hike in — either from Chelan or from a boat drop off along the lake. In addition, the Pacific Crest Trail passes about 11 miles to the West of Stehekin, and through-hikers often hitch rides into town to rest and resupply. Others hike the road and trail to connect Stehekin with the rest of North Cascades National Park.

We are still in awe of Stehekin. It’s isolation, peacefulness, and beauty. It is such a unique place, and in many ways a throwback to an earlier time. There are some cars in Stehekin, typically belonging to the residents or attached to a house rental. About 80 people live in Stehekin year round, but many more spend the summer season there working.

There are National Park Rangers in Stehekin. So, the girls grabbed their Junior Ranger books for North Cascades, along with a Junior Ranger Angler book. The Rangers were incredibly helpful in planning our time in Stehekin.

Stehekin is actually less of a town than an 11-mile rural road with houses, lodging, and other attractions along it. It is not crowded or busy. It is slow — in a good way. The best way for us to explore the road was to rent bikes and peddle our way around.

We visited the Old Stehekin School House, Rainbow Falls, Buckner Orchard, and the Harlequin Bridge. While at Rainbow Falls, we thought about how many methods of transportation we had used to get to this place. We flew from home to Denver, took light rail to Rocky Mountain Campervans’ shop, drove the camper van (through other parks) to Chelan, boarded a boat to Stehekin, rented bikes to ride to the trailhead, and took a short hike to the falls. What a journey! And it was well worth all the effort!

On three occasions, we dropped into Stehekin Pasty Company. This place is raved about on online reviews for Stehekin, so much so that we thought it could not be that good. We were wrong. So wrong. This has to be — hands down — the best food served inside a national park site. It’s not just pastries, but breakfast and lunch and so much delicious food. We can’t recommend it highly enough.

Another highlight was The Garden at Stehekin. This may be the most peaceful place we have visited on our trip. The proprietor has been in Stehekin for over 40 years, and he keeps his organic garden open to the public for visitation and to sell the bounty he harvests. He even let the girls sneak into the small barn to feed the goats. The whole experience was rejuvenating.

We only spent two nights in Stehekin — just over 48 hours total between boat rides. It felt like longer, and we could have used many more nights. The North Cascade Lodge was comfortable and accommodating with beautiful views out over the lake. And just before leaving we rented boats (one kayak and one canoe) which allowed us to paddle across the lake to see the petroglyphs on the rock wall — only visible from the water.

After the boat ride back to Stehekin, we loaded back into the camper van and headed to Newhalem. We had gotten word that State Road 20 — the best route for us — had just re-opened after being closed for weeks because of wildfires. In the town of Winthrop, where we stopped for gas, we seemed to be the only people there who were not wild land firefighters. As we drove into the affected area, we were the only car on the road amidst the forrest with a charred floor — luckily there was no canopy fire in this area. Eventually, we came upon the active burn, witnessed actual flames in the forest, and saw the fire fighters planning their next move. It was quite a sight.

Exiting the fire area, we stopped at Washington Pass and then hustled onto Diablo Lake, just before sunset. The color of Diablo Lake is simply amazing. The deepest aqua blue that seems to radiate upward toward the many vistas around the lake.

The next day we wanted to get into North Cascades National Park proper. The thing about this park complex is that there are only two ways to drive into the actual National Park. The rest of the time you are driving through Lake Chelan National Recreation Area or Ross Lake National Recreation Area. At Stehekin, we were in Lake Chelan NRA — and 11 miles from NCNP, which is at the very end of the road — technically drivable, but we didn’t have a car! In Newhalem and at Diablo Lake, we were in Ross Lake NRA, with NCPA to the north and south, but never touching the roads.

The truth is that NCNP is mostly used for backpackers. Tons of trails — which begin in the NRA — criss-cross the mountains and offer amazing opportunities. We didn’t have time to backpack in, but were still determined to hike in NCNP proper.

Our plan was to hike Cascade Pass from the end of Cascade River Road. The catch was that, just three days earlier, heavy rains had washed out the road three-miles shy of the trail head. Stuck with the decision to either add six miles (and a potentially dangerous stream crossing) to an already challenging hike, we decided against it.

Plan B was to try the Hidden Lake Trail, also off of Cascade Road, but the Rangers in the wilderness information center in Marblemount told us that trail was closed due to fire activity.

Nonetheless, we turned up Cascade River Road and made our way as far in as we could, in search of NCNP. Almost an hour and 18 miles later — the majority of which was unpaved — we arrive at the sign: “North Cascades National Park.” We made it. The trees and soil of the actual National Park!

We drove a little further, popped the top, had lunch, and then headed back out. For the afternoon, we opted for a hike on the Thunder Knob trail (3.3 miles roundtrip and 700 feet) which provided exquisite views of Diablo Lake. We finished the day with a quick dip in the lake, which was quite chilly, before heading back to Newhalem campground.

North Cascades had some disappointments, but it had more joyful surprises and peaceful moments than anything. We can’t recommend Stehekin enough for families or solo hikers or retirees — it truly has something for everyone. And we’re excited to return to the Ross Lake NRA and NCNP sometime soon to get deeper into the mountains on the trails that eluded us this time.

Now…we have a ferry to catch. We’re headed to the Olympic Peninsula!

Olympic National Park

Glacier National Park