North Cascades Mountain valleys

One of the most beautiful North Cascades Mountain valleys is the Methow Valley that begins high in the mountains and was carved -- chiefly by the Methow River and ancient glaciers -- through the eastern North Cascades foothills to end at the edge of the Columbia River miles below. Deer and cougars, black bear and a few grizzlies, too, in the border country of USA and Canada thrive in the forests and a few mesas. This pond is manmade and helps to support resident deer that seldom leave this mountain resident's property. During winter storms the deer often gather in the holes around trees made by drifting snow. Deer are browsers more than grazing animals, so trees and brush are preferred foods. In these remote valleys the few settlers live each day side by side with the creatures, mostly in harmony.  Pet cats and small dogs, though, must be careful  to avoid becoming a wild animal's choice meal.

Along its 1243-mile length in Canada and Washington State the river mostly is forested except for parts of eastern Washington with its drier climate. Certain river waterfalls always were prime fishing spots for native Americans who used self-made baskets on poles to simply put into the falling water to catch unfortunate salmon within.

The river drains thousands of square miles of both countries, including water in tributary rivers as far east as the Rocky Mountains. What a thrilling waterway that has also carried explorers of the continent and later new settlers on its challenging, swift waters. Not a few people tell me that they have read my book, The Columbia River, and plan to travel its waters (taking their canoes or boats out and back in below dams) from beginning to end. Before any dams in the 1800s a handful of people did exactly that in small boats, one in a rowboat, overcoming not dams as obstacles but raging rapids in places.