North Cascades National Park is famous for the iconic turquoise rivers flowing between and at the bottom of the majestic mountains. The water gets it’s color from the suspended “glacial flour” (finely ground rock particles from glaciers). North Cascades National Park has over 300 Glaciers in the park which is the largest number of glaciers in any park outside of Alaska. Most of the Glaciers are not accessible to the average person and require major hiking and mountaineering. However, some beautiful views of glaciers can be seen from the scenic Highway 20.

Although we were very strapped for time during our short visit (we drove in from Seattle for the day), we got to see some breathtaking views of Diablo Lake and Ross Lake. We especially enjoyed the views from the Ross Lake Overlook.

I really would have liked to visit Stehekin area since there is no road that leads there (the only way to get there is by boat or plane) we had to skip it due to the Stehekin Ferry times which did not work for us. We considered taking a boat ride on the blue-green water but it got too late so we just ended up crossing the Ross Dam and drove along Ross Lake a bit.

Although most of our visit to North Cascades National Park was from inside our car, we enjoyed the magnificent views all around us even between the stops we made.

Posted: January 11, 2026