Pacific Ranges - Cascades

segment of the Pacific mountain system of western North America. The Cascades extend northward for more than 700 miles from Lassen Peak, in northern California, U.S., through Oregon and Washington to the Fraser River in southern British Columbia, Canada. Many peaks exceed 10,000 feet, including Mount Hood, highest point in Oregon and Mount Rainier, highest in Washington and in the Cascade Range. Most of the summits are extinct volcanoes, but Lassen Peak and several others have erupted in the recent past. Mount Baker steamed heavily in 1975, and Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 and again in 1981. The mountains lie 100 to 150 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and east of the broad depressions known as the Puget Sound Lowland and the Willamette Valley, which separate the moist coastal region from the arid interior. They are continued by the Coast Mountains of British Columbia to the north and the Sierra Nevada to the south.