North Central Cascades

• - where Northern Exposure was filmed
• - county seat of Kittias County
• - Bavarian oriented town
• - county seat of Okanogan County
• - county seat of Chelan County

• - Ride the Lady of the Lake to the historic and unique town of Stehekin in the heart of Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
• Nooksack Falls, on Highway 542, 7 miles east of the Glacier Ranger Station
• - Visit the Ross Lake National Recreation Area and stretch your legs at one of the stops along the scenic North Cascades Highway
• Split Rock B.L.M. Recreation Site, on the shores of Palmer Lake. 5 miles north of Loomis along the Loomis-Oroville Road.
• Summit at Snoqualmie - ski resort at Snoqualmie Pass

The North Central Cascades includes Kittias, Chelan and Okanogan counties in the north central part of the state.

The primary language is English.

By car

From the Seattle area, you can reach the North Central Cascades by I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass to Ellensburg or US-2 over Stevens Pass to Wenatchee. Either way it is about a 2-2.5 hour drive. From Spokane to the east, you can take either US-2 or I-90 to the region. There is a border crossing on US-97 that connects the region to the Okangogan Valley in British Columbia.

By train

The only train service to this area is on Amtrak's Empire Builder that stops at Wenatchee. The Empire Builder goes across the northern United States from Seattle to Chicago.

By air

Pangborn Memorial Airport in Wenatchee has commercial flights to Seattle only. It is probably easier just to take a flight to Seattle and then drive to this region.

Public transportation is limited, so driving is basically the only way to see this region. The major north-south route is US-97, which goes through the middle of the region connecting Ellensburg, Wenatchee and Omak. East-west highways include I-90 through Ellensburg, US-2 through Wenatchee and Leavenworth and WA-20 through Winthrop and Omak.

Itineraries

The North Cascade Loop