Mount Baker Wilderness is a nearly one hundred twenty thousand-acre protected backcountry in northern Washington’s western Cascades, within Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Extending from State Route 20 to the Canada-U.S. border, it occupies rugged western slopes shaped by the forks of the Nooksack River and the Baker River. Its defining landmark is Mount Baker, an active volcano surrounded by rock, permanent ice, glaciers, and snowfields that give the higher elevations a strongly alpine character. Dense west-side Cascade forests cover the lower and middle slopes, while alpine meadows and wildlife such as mountain goats and hoary marmots characterize the high country. Together with nearby protected lands, it forms one of Washington’s major preserved mountain regions.