Sight · North Cascades National Park
A short, accessible boardwalk opens on the Picket Range.
Overview
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Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
North Cascades Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for North Cascades National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the North Cascades audio tourRecorded for this place
North Cascades Visitor Center and Picket Range View“Up ahead is the North Cascades Visitor Center, a useful stop for making sense of the mountains around you. Start with the large relief map, then ask at the information desk for help matching a walk to the time you have.”
Plays as you drive up to Sterling Munro Viewpoint in the Parkwolf North Cascades Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Sterling Munro Viewpoint is a 330-foot (100 m) wheelchair-accessible boardwalk behind the North Cascades Visitor Center, ending at an expansive view of the jagged Picket Range. It is an easy add-on to a stop at the center; the peaks are distant, so clear weather makes a real difference. At the end, let the forested slopes frame the mountains for a photo that shows the scale of the valley.
Steep mountainsides frame the Picket Range, and Mount Ross carries a visible scar from the 2015 Goodell Fire. On a clear day, look for Terror Glacier in the distance. The National Park Service describes it as the only glacier visible along the State Route 20 corridor without a strenuous hike or climb; it is one of more than 300 glaciers in the park complex.
Mountain goats may appear on the sheer slopes. Pacific wrens, varied thrushes and white-crowned sparrows are among the birds the park says to listen for in the forest. Treat them as possibilities, not a promised sighting.
The boardwalk is named for Sanford Sterling Munro Jr., an aide to Washington Senator Henry Jackson.
Wildlife
101 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
70 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
20 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
77 sightingsSooty GrouseMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
23 sightingsWhite-tailed PtarmiganMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
75 sightingsWestern ToadMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across North Cascades. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasySterling Munro Trail0.2 mi · 12 min · At the trailheadA brief wooden walk opens onto a Picket Range viewpoint.
EasyRiver Loop Trail1.8 mi · 45 min · At the trailheadA forest loop to a gravel bar with broad Skagit River views.
EasyTo Know a Tree Nature Trail1 mi · 45 min · 0.4 mi awayTree signs turn this easy riverside walk into a small nature lesson.
EasyRock Shelter Trail0.6 mi · 30 min · 0.6 mi awayA short accessible walk to a 1,400-year-old hunting camp.
EasyLower Newhalem Creek Trail0.6 mi · 30 min · 0.6 mi awayCreekside walk to a cedar glade still finding its way back.
EasyTrail of the Cedars Nature Walk0.5 mi · 30 min · 1 mi awayCross the suspension bridge for an easy old-growth river loop.
EasyLadder Creek Falls Trail0.5 mi · 30 min · 1.3 mi awayA half-mile waterfall loop with a hydroelectric past.
ChallengingThornton Lakes Trail9.1 mi · 6 hr · 2.8 mi awayA proper alpine lake waits beyond the long forest climb.
Visitor center · At the trailheadNorth Cascades Visitor CenterA relief map makes the peaks and roads easier to place.
Campground · 0.4 mi awayNewhalem Creek CampgroundA riverside base with old-growth loops and Newhalem within walking reach.
Campground · 0.5 mi awayGoodell Creek CampgroundSleep under old-growth trees with the Skagit close by.
Campground · 0.8 mi awayLower Goodell Group CampgroundA shaded Goodell Creek basecamp made for a whole group.
Sight · 0.8 mi awayNewhalem Creek PowerhouseA 1921 powerhouse that helped build Newhalem and Gorge Dam.
Sight · 1 mi awayTemple of PowerA gazebo built from hardware that once helped power Seattle.
Visitor center · 1 mi awaySkagit Information CenterHydroelectric history and local help on the road through Newhalem.
Store · 1 mi awaySkagit General StoreA working 1922 company store with fudge and camp supplies.Parkwolf’s North Cascades ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
