The Cascades (Cascade Range) are a major mountain range in western North America that run from northern California, through Oregon and Washington, into southern British Columbia in Canada.

Quick Scoop: Where Are the Cascades?

  • The range starts near Lassen Peak in northern California and continues north through Oregon and Washington.
  • It ends in southern British Columbia , where they’re sometimes called the Canadian Cascades or Cascade Mountains.
  • The Cascades sit roughly 160–240 km (about 100–150 miles) inland from the Pacific Coast , separated from the coastal ranges by broad valleys like Oregon’s Willamette Valley and Washington’s Puget Trough.

A Bit More Detail

  • The total length of the Cascade Range is about 1,100–1,150 km (around 700 miles).
  • They’re famous for their chain of high volcanic peaks (the “High Cascades”), including Mount Rainier in Washington, the highest peak in the range at 4,392 m (14,411 ft).
  • In ecological terms, the “Cascades ecoregion” covers the peaks and western slopes of much of the High Cascades in Washington, Oregon, and northern California , roughly from Snoqualmie Pass near Seattle down to near the Oregon–California border.

Simple mental map

If you look at a map of the US West Coast:

  1. Find the Pacific Ocean and the coastal cities (like Seattle, Portland, and the northern California coast).
  2. Move inland (east) about 2–3 hours’ drive by car; that long north–south line of big, often snowy mountains you hit is the Cascade Range.

In short, when people ask “where are the Cascades?”, they’re talking about that tall volcanic mountain backbone stretching from northern California up through Oregon and Washington into southern British Columbia in Canada.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.