Mount Shuksan mirrors in Picture Lake

Mount Shuksan is mirrored in Picture Lake in the North Cascades in Washington. In the last light of dusk, high cirrus clouds of an approaching low pressure system illuminate the sky in deep pink. The wild and rugged North Cascades mountain range is also geologically wild terrain.
Mt. Shuksan is a glacial horn that rises to an elevation of 9131 ft (2783 m) and intercepts the moisture-laden winds coming in from the Pacific Ocean. Hence, annual precipitation reaches 110 inches (2.8 m) with a snow accumulation up to 46 ft (14 m). This nourishes glaciers, streams, and lakes. Glaciers of the last ice age gouged out hollows in the lava bedrock of the neighboring Mt. Baker volcano that today are occupied by lakes. During summer months, soil washed down by creeks is slowly filling the lake that results in a transition of the lake into a meadow where mountain hemlock and Pacific silver firs are growing.
The North Cascades consist of very old oceanic and continental terranes of different origins that arrived here as microplates in late Mesozoic and early Tertiary time. Young volcanoes are superimposed in this mountain range as a result of the ongoing steep subduction of the Juan de Fuca ocean plate under the North American continent.