Cascade Mountain Range Washington
If you have lived on the Eastside before you know how beautiful and breath taking King County’s Cascade mountains can be during early sunrise or summer sunsets. With the rising sun, the Cascades seemingly rise in the sky as watchful protectors over their residents and in the evening have the patient look of a trusted guardian.
One of King County’s most famous tourist destinations lies East of Seattle along I-90, Snoqualmie Falls. Snoqualmie Falls is a spectacular waterfall at 270 ft and attracts more visitors annually than other tourist destination in Washington. Situated on the top of the falls is the Salish Lodge & Spa. Washington has some of the most waterfalls in the United States in the lower 48 States and some reach as high as 2,500 ft.
In the winter time, many Eastside and Seattle residents take advantage of the close proximity to ski resorts to enjoy some winter adventure activities. A 45 minute drive from Seattle and you can be at 1 of 2 local ski resorts, The Summit at Snoqualmie and the World famous Alpental resort.
Some other activities include: scenic hiking, snowmobiling, high mountain lake destination and a wide variety of photographical opportunities.
The Washington Cascades
The Cascade Mountain Ranges were formed thousand of years ago through volcanism and glacier receding. The combination of these two natural forces have created a majestic landscape that separates Washington into two halves: Western and Eastern Washington. Even though these two halves are not separated to far away geographically, the effects of the Cascade Mountains on the two halves makes them World’s apart.
Western Washington is known for its rain fall and is due to the clouds building up and condensing as they approach the foothills. When clouds hit the Cascades they are forced to release their water content in order to elevate and pass over the mountains. On the flip side, this creates a very large rain shadow that residents of Eastern Washington get to enjoy. Typical weather created by the rain Shadow give Eastern Washington far more sunny days and what can be described as a high desert environment.
In recent history the natural forces of the Cascades has been seen and felt by people all over Washington State. The most famous of all these events is the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The eruption was the largest volcanic eruption on the continental United States and ash that was flung into the air settled all over the state. Since scary day in 1980, Mount St. Helens has been slowly rebuilding herself and can be viewed on the VolcanoCamera.