North Cascades National Park is remote, rugged, and spectacularly majestic. Efforts to establish a park gained traction after World War II, as national interest in wilderness preservation and concerns about the impact of harvesting timber grew. Troubled by the National Park Service¿s policy favoring development for tourism and the United States Forest Service¿s policy promoting logging in the national forests, conservationists leveraged a changing political environment and the evolving environmental values of the natural resource agencies. Their activism eventually led to the 1968 creation of a crown jewel--Washington¿s magnificent third national park. This engaging account tells the story.

* Completely redesigned for easier use * Includes five new hikes, more photos, and expanded route descriptions * "The best book for trail descriptions in the Olympics." - The San Francisco Chronicle With its moss-draped rain forests, alpine meadows brimming with wildflowers, and snow-capped mountains, the Olympic Peninsula is a hiker's paradise. Explore the Cat Creek Way Trail, a high-country route to a view of Oyster Lake, or trek along the Appleton Pass Trail where you might spy a fat marmot perched on one of the boulders along the path. This new edition of a tried-and-true classic to hiking the Olympic Peninsula contains all the facts for both day hikes and overnight backpack trips. You'll find information on 177 hikes in the Olympic Mountains and extensive material on history, geology, native plants, and wildlife. Also find in this hiking guidebook numbered hikes for quick reference; detailed information blocks for each trail; and weather information for each section of the Olympic Mountains.