North Cascades NP

[andyjaggy]

I have lucked out a bit and my work is taking me up to Seattle the second week of August. I am book ending that work conference with a visit to Olympic NP for 3 days before the conference, and a visit to North Cascades NP for 3 days after the conference. I haven't been to either of these places so I am looking for some advice. My coworker and I will be camping while we are there, but are not looking to backpack, just camping in campgrounds and day hiking.

 

[Mike K]

Others will have good/better recommendations I'm sure. It's been 10 years and I didn't do a ton up there. And what we did was mostly "touristy" stuff, but...

Olympic NP - Hoh rain forest is cool. Some short hikes in there. Any coastal hike would gorgeous. I also remember a drive that had some cool overlooks...it might have been the road to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. My buddy's pics from that trip here.

In the North Cascades we did a cool short hike that we liked...all I remember was that it was a trail that went towards Shale Mountain. PIcs and GPS track here.

I'd definitely like to explore this parks in more detail.

I do remember seeing what we dubbed a "retarded buck". Or maybe it found a patch of 'shrooms:

 

[Nick]

I do remember seeing what we dubbed a "retarded buck". Or maybe it found a patch of 'shrooms:

View attachment 17090

I think I might invoke my moderator powers and make that your BCP avatar.

 

[andyjaggy]

Those pics from that hike look awesome. The more I look into North Cascades the more I am really blown away by it. It's crazy that that national park is one of the least visited in the entire country, I read it only sees about 20k visitors per year. For the scenery I have seen coming from there I can't believe that, apparently most of the goods take some hiking, which eliminates the 90% of visitors who like to just drive through the parks.