North Cascades Visitor Center

North Cascades Visitor Center is an information and orientation stop in Newhalem, across the Skagit River from SR 20 near milepost 120. Start with its large relief map, then ask at the information desk for help choosing where to spend your time in a park whose valleys and trails are spread across a wide area.

The relief map shows the park and surrounding area; multimedia exhibits cover its natural and cultural history. The theater has a large-format slide program and video, and the sales area carries books, maps and videos. Give yourself time to look around instead of treating the center as only a place to pick up directions.

The fully accessible Sterling Munro Boardwalk leaves from the center’s northwest corner and runs 300 feet to a view toward the Picket Range. It is an easy add-on while you are here, though clouds can hide the mountain outlook.

For a longer outing, the Skagit River Loop is 1.8 miles round trip with about 118 feet of elevation gain. It drops through lowland forest to the river, with benches along the way. The trail is described as smooth and obstacle-free with grades under 10 percent, though the distance still makes it a longer walk than the boardwalk.

The loop follows the Skagit, one of Washington’s Wild and Scenic Rivers, and passes a burn area from the 2015 Newhalem fires. That same patch was logged in 1968, so the walk also shows how fire and earlier land use have shaped the river corridor.