Stand at the water in Bellingham on a clear day and you can see a glaciated volcano to the east and islands scattered to the west. That is the geography of the Pacific Northwest in a single view. The ten facts below stay inside Whatcom and Skagit Counties, where PNW Concierge manages homes, and they range from the high Cascades down to the tide flats.
1. The geography of the Pacific Northwest starts with Mt. Baker, an active volcano
At about 10,780 feet, Mt. Baker is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade volcanoes after Mount Rainier. Its crater is the second most thermally active in the range, behind Mount St. Helens. The Mt. Baker Highway (SR-542) climbs 24 miles from the town of Glacier to Artist Point, where the road ends below the mountain. Our guide to things to do near Mt. Baker covers the trails along the way, and Baker Bliss is our cabin in Glacier Springs.
2. Mt. Baker Ski Area recorded the most snow ever measured in a season
The 1998-99 season brought 1,140 inches, or 95 feet, a single-season world record that has not been beaten. Storms coming off the Pacific reach the Cascades loaded with moisture, and Baker is where they meet the first big wall. That snow feeds the glaciers year after year.
3. The North Cascades have more than 300 glaciers
Past Baker, the range continues east into North Cascades National Park, which has more than 300 glaciers, more than any other U.S. national park outside Alaska. Highway 20 is the road into the park. Our homes in the Sedro-Woolley area are north of the highway, a good starting point for the drive.
4. Meltwater from Baker and Shuksan becomes the Nooksack River
The three forks of the Nooksack start in glaciers on and around Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan and meet near Deming. The North Fork follows SR-542 down the valley, so the highway has a river beside it for much of the drive. From there the Nooksack carries the water west toward Bellingham Bay.
5. Lake Whatcom is 5,000 acres of deep water
Lake Whatcom is about 10 miles long, roughly a mile across at its widest and more than 300 feet deep in places. It has three basins, and it is the drinking water source for much of Bellingham. We manage homes at both the north and south ends. Browse our Bellingham vacation rentals to see which lake views are open.
6. The San Juan Islands were assembled, then sculpted by ice
Most of the rock in the San Juans did not form where it now stands. Slabs of old seafloor and island chains collided with the continent and were pushed over one another in a belt of thrust faults, between about 100 and 84 million years ago. Glaciers did the finishing work, and the last ice sheet pulled back about 12,000 years ago, leaving ridges and hilltops standing above the water. Washington counts 172 named islands in the group. San Juan, Orcas, Lopez and Shaw are the four with state ferry service, and the boats leave from Anacortes.
7. Lummi Island is not a San Juan, but half of it is built like one
The San Juan Islands are the islands of San Juan County. Lummi Island is in Whatcom County, so it falls outside the group, and it has its own ferry. The Whatcom Chief, a 20-car county ferry, crosses from Gooseberry Point in about six minutes, while the San Juans are served by state ferries out of Anacortes. Orcas Island is close enough to see across the water, and to the north you can pick out Canada’s Gulf Islands.
The rock tells the same story from two directions. The south half of Lummi is Lummi Formation, Cretaceous seafloor that was scraped onto the continent, the same assembled-from-pieces origin as the San Juans. The north half is something else: Eocene river sandstone and conglomerate of the Chuckanut Formation, the same rock found around Bellingham Bay and in the Chuckanut Mountains. A fault separates the two halves. The island covers roughly nine square miles and has fewer than a thousand year-round residents. Our Sunset Escape faces west over the water, while Heron’s Nest looks east across Hale Passage to Bellingham, with Mt. Baker beyond. If you have not made the crossing before, read how to get to Lummi Island first.
8. The Skagit is Puget Sound’s largest river and builds its largest delta
The flat, rich delta soil of the Skagit Valley grows the tulip and daffodil fields that bloom through April. The valley ends at the Swinomish Channel, an 11-mile saltwater channel that separates Fidalgo Island from the mainland and passes La Conner. Our Skagit Valley Tulip Festival guide covers when to go.
9. Fidalgo Island is an island you reach by road
Anacortes is the only city on Fidalgo, and the Deception Pass Bridge, 976 feet long and opened in 1935, joins the island to Whidbey Island. Mount Erie, at 1,273 feet, is the highest point on Fidalgo, inside an Anacortes city park. Across the Guemes Channel, Guemes Island is not one of the San Juans either. It belongs to Skagit County and has its own county ferry from Anacortes. When you come down from the summit, where to eat in Anacortes is the next question.
10. Birch Bay is shallow enough that low tide exposes the whole bay
At a minus tide the sand and mud flats stretch across the bay, and the shallow water warms in summer sun. Next door, the Semiahmoo Spit curls about 1.25 miles between Drayton Harbor and Semiahmoo Bay. Blaine, Birch Bay and Semiahmoo are the northwest corner of Whatcom County, close to the Canadian border.
Planning your visit? Explore our vacation rentals across Whatcom and Skagit Counties, from Mt. Baker and Lake Whatcom to Lummi Island and Birch Bay.