Alpine Lakes Region

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Evening light, looking north over Rapid River valley, Wild Sky Wilderness.

THE ALPINE LAKES REGION

Fishing in Waptus Lake. Summit Chief and Bears Breast mountain form the skyline. Photo: John Warth

Washington’s spectacular Cascade Mountains divide the state into eastern and western halves. In the central part of the range, directly east of the Seattle area, is the Alpine Lakes region. It is a beautiful, fascinating land of dramatic peaks, wild rivers, lush forests and more than 600 lakes which have given the region its name.

Few, if any, cities in the world of Seattle’s size and stature are as fortunate in having so much wild country literally within sight. The Alpine Lakes region forms most of the mountain skyline visible to the east from Seattle. Within an hour’s drive of most of the state’s population, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness has been called Washington’s “Backyard Wilderness”, and is easily reached from the Stevens Pass (US-2) and Snoqualmie Pass (I-90) highways.

Looking north from Mt. Fernow over Evergreen Mountain to Sloan Peak in the distance. Photo: John Roper

Evergreen Mountain from El Capitan, Wild Sky Wilderness

The central Cascades are a very interesting place. The combination of dramatic physical relief alongside extensive stretches of wild, biologically productive forests is matched in few places on Earth. The Alpine Lakes is where the Canadian-sized mountains meet the rich Oregon-type “big tree” forests. To the north of the Cascades, the British Columbia Coast Range is a land of big mountains and large icecaps and glaciers where the climate is colder, species fewer and trees smaller. The South Cascades, which extend from I-90 southward, are a floristically rich land of warm summers, big trees and mostly gentle mountains. That friendlier southern terrain doesn’t have the kind of obstacles to road-building and logging that have helped protect areas to the north, and very little of it has survived intact. Thus, the central Cascades have been described as the perfect mix: far enough north to have enough snow and ice to make things interesting, but not smothered by icecaps. The mountains are impressively scenic and rugged enough to have kept roads from being built everywhere, but not so steep as to make hiking and trail-building impossible, and far enough south to encompass the reliably warm summers and botanic richness not found to the north. Combined with the natural diversity arising from having both a wet (west) and dry (east) side, it all adds up to a pleasing mix of influences from north and south, and east and west; a region where these different qualities meet and blend attractively.

BACKGROUND

Looking NW over Sunset Lake to Conglomerate Point and Spire Mountain. Photo: Mark Lawler

Native peoples have lived in and around the Alpine Lakes region of the Cascades for longer than anyone can say. They traversed the length and breadth of the cascades. Every mountain, valley and stream has a Native American name. These peoples managed to live for many millennia without damaging the resources that sustained them. They are now quite active in asserting their treaty rights to fish, hunt and gather, along with working to insure that public lands (where their treaty rights are guaranteed,) are managed to protect their health and productivity.

A few Europeans started arriving in nearby areas around 1810. Indian people traded beaver pelts with them for knives, blankets and other useful items. Smallpox and other introduced diseases subsequently took a heavy toll on these people. A great epidemic swept through the region in 1838. Mining began in the 1850’s, and European settlers began arriving in large numbers on both sides of the mountains after about 1870. The first railroad over the Cascades, the Northern Pacific was constructed over Stampede Pass in 1887, followed by the Great Northern across Stevens Pass in 1892, and the Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul & Pacific across Snoqualmie Pass in 1910. Highways were built across Snoqualmie and Stevens passes in the 1920s.

National Forests were set aside in the years around 1900, comprised mostly of mountainous areas of relatively low timber value. At the time, these lands were of little interest to the timber companies, who managed to privatize most of the public domain lands with what was then considered commercially valuable forests in the closing years of the 1800s. The development of small, powerful locomotives allowed railroad-based logging operations to push into the Cascades and major low elevation west side valleys such as the Skykomish. All three forks of the Snoqualmie and the Pratt were logged in the period from 1920 to 1945. As privately owned forests were being rapidly logged, the timber industry began to push for ever more cutting in the National Forests. Truck-based logging intensified after World War II, and between 1945 and 1990 hundreds of roads were pushed into most valleys, often to high elevations and in areas of little timber value. Most Forest Service timber sales of that era were heavily subsidized by taxpayers. These timber sales fragmented forests and destroyed many wild areas, and left a legacy of thousands of miles of collapsing roads still causing ongoing damage to streams and fish.

Upper North Fork Skykomish valley seen from West Cady Ridge. Photo: Mark Lawler

Goat Packing, Wild Sky Wilderness, Mt. Stuart in far distance.

As more people started visiting the Cascades, many did not like the destruction they saw taking place. Pressure began growing to preserve some areas from the onslaught. A proposal was made in the 1930s for an ‘Ice Peaks National Park’, which would have included much of the Alpine Lakes, but it failed. It was not until the 1960s, as valley after valley was being roaded and logged, that serious and committed efforts to preserve the Alpine Lakes region really began. In 1968, concerned citizens formed the Alpine Lakes Protection Society, or ALPS.

For almost a decade, ALPS led efforts to obtain Wilderness protection. Despite opposition from timber and motorized recreation interests, widespread support from the general public and elected officials resulted in the designation of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in 1976. Political realities of the day excluded most low valleys from the Wilderness, but designation of what ultimately became 414,000 acres of Wilderness was a remarkable triumph.

Since 1976, ALPS and its allies in the conservation movement have continued to work to further protect the Alpine Lakes region. Great efforts have been made to consolidate the checkerboard pattern of alternating ownerships resulting from the 1864 Northern Pacific Land Grant (which rendered effective management impossible) through land exchanges and purchases. In 1994, the Northwest Forest Plan was adopted, greatly reducing National Forest timber cutting, especially on the west side. Many damaging timber sales were stopped. ALPS was a leader in the effort to designate the Wild Sky Wilderness north of Highway 2, which was signed into law in May 2008. Wild Sky permanently protected 106,000 acres, including many biologically rich lower elevation areas and salmon spawning streams. ALPS initiated and led a succesful campaign to add 22,000 acres to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, comprised mostly of the low elevation Pratt river valley, which was signed into law in 2014. This increased the size of the Wilderness to about 414,000 acres.