The North Cascades

Stehekin is a community of just 85 year-round residents. 50 miles from the nearest grocery store, doctor’s office, TV/ radio reception, or telephone landline — Stehekin is one of the most isolated communities in the lower 48 United States. (There are no roads to the outside world and it can only be reached by boat, on foot, or by float plane.) But Stehekin is also the southern gateway to North Cascades National Park and some of the most breathtaking landscape and wildlife in North America. In 2011 Earnest Ward was invited to spend 10 weeks (spring and autumn) as the park’s Artist-in-Residence (the first time the park had ever invited an artist to do both seasons).


This book tells the exciting story of the first season (spring) of that adventure through the artist’s vivid journal entries, sketches, hand-drawn maps, paintings, photos, and videos.