Glaciated Peaks in North Cascades National Park, Washington
North Cascades holds more glaciers than any other national park in the US. Erosion by these glaciers has carved deep, U-shaped valleys in their lower reaches and scalloped amazing cirques at their upper reaches. And they're still very much a part of the landscape.

The bedrock of North Cascades consist of a series of accreted terranes, each of which consists of several smaller terranes that came together, or were amalgamated, before they were accreted. The Skagit Core, which hosts most of the high peaks, consist of rocks that were metamorphosed, intruded by igneous rocks of a magmatic arc, and then re-metamorphosed.

I took this photo on a day hike to Cascade Pass after visiting friends in Seattle. What a long, wonderful day! And amazing to think that I could wake up in Seattle and be in this kind of terrane by the end of the day.

See more images of North Cascades National Park --then type "North Cascades National Park". To see any of the features listed above, you can use those as keywords.
See a geologic terrane map of North Cascades National Park.

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