William O. Douglas Wilderness
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The William O. Douglas Wilderness includes 166,000 acres located between the U.S. Route 12 and State Route 410 and is jointly administered by the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the Wenatchee National Forest. It shares a boundary with the Mt. Rainier National Park on the west. Approximately 25 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail travel along the Cascade Range crest between its boundaries. It contains scattered peaks, sharp ridges, steep slopes and hundreds of small lakes and potholes. Fish and wildlife are abundant here, and may minerals are found.
While significant portions of the William O. Douglas Wilderness are high elevation forest, the overall topography is varied. The Cougar Lakes portion is characterized by high alpine lakes, and the Tumac Plateau is dotted with numerous lakes in a forest setting. The eastern edges of this wilderness drop to mid-elevation pine forest and bare ridges. The Meeks Table Natural research area, located on a basalt table mountain, is within this wilderness at its eastern boundary.
The 1984 Washington Wilderness Act designated the Cougar lake Roadless area as the William O. Douglas Wilderness. Raised in Yakima, Washington William Orville Douglas went on to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Justice Douglas is remembered for a long and distinguished career marked by his concern for civil rights and environmental issues. This tribute honors not only the active role Justice Douglas played in Federal Wilderness legislation but also his life-long dedication and love for the Cougar Lakes region. William O. Douglas knew the area trails intimately, and spent many summers at his cabin in Goose Prairie, Washington, a small mountain community surrounded by the present Wilderness.
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