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Lonely National Parks
By Rich Beattie, GORP Editor
Washington
North Cascades, Washington

North Cascades
Forget about Glacier National Park. If you want ice mounds all to yourself, head to North Cascades, in Washington's Canadian borderlands. You'll find 318 glaciers, or about 60 percent of the total glacier-covered area in the contiguous states. The loneliest park in the lower 48, North Cascades is very accessible; a highway runs right through it, and you'll find lots of campsites, as well as a couple resorts. In between it all live cougars, black and grizzly bears, mountain goats, and gray wolves. There are also valleys worth of western red cedar and forests dense with Douglas fir, with enough breaks for sweeping views of those alpine glaciers.

North Cascades
Hug these trees:
Play in North Cascades' forest.

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