华盛顿州北瀑布国家公园，美国 North Cascades National Park, Washington (© Ethan Welty/Tandem Stills + Motion)

华盛顿州北瀑布国家公园，美国 North Cascades National Park, Washington (© Ethan Welty/Tandem Stills + Motion)

令人惊叹的后花园 Amazing backyard

North Cascades National Park

North Cascades is one of three national parks in Washington state (the others are Olympic and Mount Rainier). North Cascades is also the state's newest national park, created in 1968. It is perhaps the most rugged park in the lower 48 states, containing more than 500,000 acres of steep mountain peaks, vast forests, as well as the headwaters of many waterways. It boasts the most expansive system of glaciers in the US outside of Alaska. Most of the park is protected as wilderness so there are few roads, structures, or signs of human impact. It is relatively isolated even though it's within 100 miles (as the crow flies) from the metropolises of Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. This proximity of wilderness to human development reminds us why we created the NPS, to preserve some of the nation's most special places in their natural state.

北瀑布国家公园

北瀑布是华盛顿州的三个国家公园之一（其他两个是奥林匹克公园和雷尼尔山公园）。北喀斯特也是该州最新的国家公园，创建于1968年。它可能是48个州中最崎岖的公园，拥有50多万英亩陡峭的山峰、广阔的森林以及许多水道的源头。它拥有阿拉斯加以外美国最广阔的冰川系统。公园的大部分被保护为荒野，因此几乎没有道路、结构或人类影响的迹象。尽管它距离西雅图和加拿大温哥华的大都市不到100英里（就像乌鸦一样），但它还是相对孤立。荒野与人类发展的这种接近提醒我们，为什么我们创建了自然保护区，以保护国家一些最特殊的自然状态。