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Parks / North Cascades

When to visit
North Cascades.

Busiest monthAugust10K visits
Quietest monthDecember21 visits
Warmest monthAugust59°F average high
Wettest monthDecember14.3" of precipitation

The park drew an average of 31K recreation visits a year over 2016–2025. August is the busiest month at 30.8% of the year's visits, and December the quietest — 455.1× fewer people.

Crowds

August averages 9,558 recreation visits against 21 in December. Visit counts are the National Park Service's own monthly totals for the whole park, so unlike the weather figures below they describe every entrance and every trailhead at once.

Conditions through the year

August is the warmest month at 7,244 feet, averaging a daily high of 59°F, and February the coldest at 18°F with lows near 7°F. December is the wettest at 14.3 inches, July the driest at 1.4.

Daylight runs from 8h 18m in December to 16h 6m in June, a difference of 7h 48m of usable time in a day.

Snow shows up in every month except July and August. That is snowfall at the grid cell, not road or trail status — parks close roads on their own schedule and conditions, and the park's own alerts are the only authority on what is open.

Read the temperatures this way

Those temperatures come from a reanalysis grid cell centred at 7,244 feet. A park that spans a range of elevations is warmer in some places and colder in others than one cell can show, and most parks span a wide one. Read the month-to-month shape — which months run warm, wet or snowy relative to each other — rather than any single figure as the temperature you will meet at a given trailhead.

Every month

MonthHighLowWet days Snow daysDaylightVisits
January 19° 9° 19 17 8h 48m 47
February 18° 7° 20 18 10h 12m 42
March 25° 12° 18 16 11h 54m 49
April 31° 16° 17 14 13h 42m 248
May 41° 24° 13 4 15h 18m 974
June 48° 30° 14 2 16h 6m 2,891
July 57° 37° 6 0 15h 42m 9,127
August 59° 39° 8 0 14h 18m 9,558
September 50° 33° 11 1 12h 36m 6,515
October 36° 22° 16 8 10h 48m 1,450
November 24° 14° 20 16 9h 12m 68
December 18° 9° 20 18 8h 18m 21

Averages over 10 years, 2016–2025. Wet days count days with at least 0.04″ of precipitation; snow days at least 0.4″ of snowfall.

There is no best month here

This page does not pick one. Crowds and weather alone cannot: in the desert parks the emptiest months are empty because the heat is dangerous, and in the mountain parks the quietest ones are quiet because the roads are shut. What a month has usually been like and what it will be like on your date are also different claims — for the second, the planner reads the live seven-day forecast and the park's own notices.

ParkReady is independent and is not affiliated with the National Park Service. Road, trail and campground status comes from the park, and the park is the only authority on it.

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