Cascade Range
The Cascade Range of Washington
About the Cascade Range
The Cascades are a mountain range extending roughly from south of Lassen Peak in California to the Fraser River in Canada. The Cascades are most famous for their high precipitation and dizzyingly tall composite cone volcanoes.
The Washington Cascades are a diverse range. You go from dry pineforests and sagebrush in the east to rainforests and glaciers in the west. Low hills in the south to peaks ascending to dizzying heights in the north. These mountains were formed by the most part from the subduction zone of the North American plate with the Juan de Fuca plate. In addition to uplifting, the subduction zone produces huge stratovolcanoes, such as 14,410 Mount Rainier.