For tours of Diablo Lake and Ross Dam, call Seattle City Light, Skagit Tours (tel. 206/684-3030). There's even a dinner cruise. This 4-hour boat tour starts with a trip up an incline railway to the top of 389-foot-tall Diablo Dam. From there you board a boat for the 5-mile cruise to Ross Lake Dam, where you get a tour of the powerhouse. At the end is a fried chicken or vegetarian spaghetti dinner. Tours are offered Thursday through Monday between mid-June through August, weekends only in September, and cost $25 for adults, $22 for seniors, $12.50 for children 6 to 11. Reservations are required. There are also 1 1/2-hour tours of Diablo Dam, for $5, not including the boat ride or dinner. No reservations are needed for the shorter tour.
Want to track radio-collared mountain caribou? Stalk newts, frogs, and salamanders in Heather Meadows? Learn about Lummi Indian basketry? Delve into the mysteries of mycology? Hang with some bats? You can do any of these things if you sign up for the right class through the North Cascades Institute. Offering around 60 natural history field seminars each year, North Cascades Institute, 810 Wash. 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284-9394 (tel. 360/856-5700, ext. 209; fax 360/856-1934; nci@ncascades.org), is a nonprofit educational organization that offers a wide range of courses each year. Although these seminars, many of which involve camping out, focus on the North Cascades region, there are programs throughout the state. The Institute, in partnership with the National Park Service and Seattle City Light, plans to open a North Cascades Environmental Learning Center in 2003.
A variety of day trips are operated in conjunction with the three passenger ferries of the Lake Chelan Boat Company (tel. 509/682-4584). Tours include a popular bus ride to 312-foot Rainbow Falls ($6 adults, $4 children age 6-11), a bus ride up the valley and a bike ride back down ($12), and a narrated bus trip up the valley to High Bridge and then a picnic lunch ($20 adults, $10 children age 6-11).
There are a number of ranger-led hikes in the park. These often start from the North Cascades Visitor Center, Stehekin Landing, Hozomeen, or the Colonial Creek Campground, but this varies from year to year. Check at the visitor center for a schedule of daily events.
