Alpine Lakes Wilderness (historylink.org)
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness covers more than 414,000 acres within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan-Wenatchee national forests in the northern Cascade Range of Washington. The wilderness includes parts of Chelan, Kittitas, and King counties. It is bordered by Snoqualmie Pass to the south, by the town of Leavenworth to the east, and by Stevens Pass to the north. The Alpine Lakes Wilderness got its name from its more than 600 ponds and lakes, which offer scenic grandeur and abundant water. The wilderness was created in 1976 by President Gerald Ford and expanded in 2014 by President Barack Obama. Most challenging for its future sustainability, it lies only an hour or two from the heart of Seattle.- Alpine Lakes Wilderness (wilderness.net)
The United States Congress designated the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in 1976 and it now has a total of 414,322 acres. All of this Wilderness is located in Washington and is managed by the Forest Service.
- How to find and observe NGC663 (TOTS#4) (eyesonthesky.com)
NGC 663 is an open cluster within our own Milky Way galaxy. It is over 6,800 light years from Earth, so the photons from it reaching your eye in a telescope left that cluster about the time circular ditches - such as the Goseck Circle - were being dug as solar observatories in the 5th millenium BCE. NGC 663 is stil considered a young open cluster, with an estimated age around 20 million years. Here is how to locate it.
- Alpine Lakes Wilderness (Wikipedia)
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is a large wilderness area spanning the Central Cascades of Washington state in the United States. The wilderness is located in parts of Wenatchee National Forest and Snoqualmie National Forest, and is approximately bounded by Interstate 90 and Snoqualmie Pass to the south and U.S. Route 2 and Stevens Pass to the north. The Alpine Lakes is the largest wilderness area near the population centers of Puget Sound, counted at 414,161 acres (167,605 ha) following the 2014 expansion.