Here the beautiful Stehekin Valley, with a portion of fjordlike Lake Chelan, adjoins North Cascades National Park. Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (62,000 acres, 24,800 hectares) rests in a glacially carved trough in the Cascades Range. Lake Chelan is one of the nation's deepest, reaching a depth of 1,500 feet (450 meters). It offers boating, fishing, and lakeshore camping. The average width is less than two miles (3.2 kilometers), but Lake Chelan extends 50 miles (83 kilometers) into the Cascade Mountains. The lake's northernmost four miles (6.4 kilometers) are in the National Recreation Area, including the remote community of Stehekin and the Stehekin River Valley. This is a remote part of North Cascades National Park Service Complex. See the national park homepage, Focus on Stehekin and the North Cascades Challenger publications for more information about visiting Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and vicinity.

Operating Hours & Seasons

It is possible to reach the Stehekin Valley in the recreation area year round by passenger ferry or float-plane but never by road. There are no road connections between Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and the outside.
There are a number of trails available for hiking to the area in the summer.