My good friend Bruce R. sent me a small version of one of those classic old time National Park posters. I didn't know there was one for the North Cascades, a mostly unknown park. But [...]

9-17-23  Well the fire blew up again with several days of hot summer weather.  So far the North Cascades Pass is still open however. Here is a shot from yesterday...click on this link-- Sourdough Fire [...]

Wonderful surprise this morning in the New York Times -- an article on Fire Lookouts.  Please see: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/climate/wildfire-lookouts-fire-towers.htm This article may be behind a paywall so hopefully many of you are NYT subscribers...........  Desolation Peak [...]

Has reopened again as of this morning 🙂, there is now an additional fire along the Pass east of Sourdough around Blue Lake

Highway 20 was closed again the other day. The north unit of North Cascades Park is still shut down, campgrounds, boat traffic......... They did get my old LO wrapped ---Sourdough.  Yahoo !!  Thank heavens  : [...]

8-9-23  Highway 20 which is the North Cascades Pass has been closed for several days because of the Sourdough Fire.  It was been reopened.  So you will be able to access the East Bank Trailhead.

8-5-2023   Unfortunately they have closed the North Cascades Pass between Newhalem and Rainey Pass.  So there is no easy way to get to Desolation presently  i.e.  the water taxi not operating, you can't rent [...]

About a week ago lightning started a fire on the west side of Sourdough at the south end of the lake.  This fire has grown to 3000 acres+ and has caused the NPS to shut [...]

7-10-23  Ross Lake is about 17 feet down ---that is lower than usual / full pool.  This means that the Dock at Desolation is probably high and dry.  You will need to land on the [...]

On the westside of Ross Lake is one of those memorable names --> Skymo.  There is a mountain, a lake and a stream by that name.  I only know one person who has been up [...]