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The North Cascades National Park Service Complex includes North Cascades National Park and Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas.
North Cascades National Park contains some of America's most beautiful scenery -- jagged peaks, deep valleys, cascading waterfalls and over 300 glaciers -- within its 505,000 acres (202,000 hectares).
Ross Lake National Recreation Area (118,000 acres, 47,200 hectares) is the corridor for scenic Washington State Route 20, the North Cascades Highway, and includes three reservoirs: 12,000-acre (4,800-hectare) Ross Lake, 910-acre (364-hectare) Diablo Lake, and 210-acre (84-hectare) Gorge Lake -- water gateways to more remote areas.
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (62,000 acres, 24,800 hectares) rests in a glacially carved trough in the Cascades Range. Lake Chelan is one of the nation's deepest, reaching a depth of 1,500 feet (450 meters). It offers boating, fishing, and lakeshore camping. The average width is less than two miles (3.2 kilometers), but Lake Chelan extends 50 miles (83 kilometers) into the Cascade Mountains. The lake's northernmost four miles (6.4 kilometers) are in the National Recreation Area, including the remote community of Stehekin and the Stehekin River Valley.
Over 93% of the three areas comprising the Complex are included in the Stephen Mather Wilderness, established in 1988 (Public Law 100-668). This Wilderness was named in honor of the first director of the National Park Service.
Desginations
October 2, 1968 - National Park
October 2, 1968 - National Recreation Area
November 16, 1988 - Wilderness
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