The Chuckanut Mountains (from "Chuckanut", an Indian word meaning "long beach far from a narrow entrance"), or Chuckanuts, are located on the northern Washington state coast of the Salish Sea, just south of Bellingham, Washington. Being a part of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

, they are the only place where the Cascades come west down to meet the sea. The Chuckanuts are considered to be a part of the

Puget Lowland Forest Ecoregion Puget may refer to: * Puget (surname) * Puget, Vaucluse, a commune in France * Puget, Washington, a community in the United States See also * Puget Creek * Puget Island * Puget Sound *Puget-Ville Puget-Ville (; oc, Puget Vila) is a commune in ...

. The range contains Larrabee State Park, the first State Park to be designated in Washington (1923). Its mountains include: *Anderson Mountain *Blanchard Mountain *Chuckanut Mountain (including North Chuckanut Mountain, South Chuckanut Mountain, and Chuckanut Ridge) *Galbraith Mountain (also known as North Lookout Mountain) *King Mountain *Lookout Mountain, Washington, Lookout Mountain *Sehome Hill Arboretum, Sehome Hill *Squalicum Mountain *Stewart Mountain *Toad Mountain

Geology

The Chuckanut Mountains were formed by the folding of the Chuckanut Formation (which is predominantly made up of layers of 55-million-year-old sandstone, conglomerate, shale, and bituminous and sub-bituminous coal) and the later Huntingdon Formation (predominantly shale and sandstone) on top, as well as an exposed section of pre-Jurassic-age phyllite. The Chuckanuts are well known for their Tertiary Period leaf fossils. In 1988, an outcrop of Metamorphic rock, metamorphic phyllite, Chert, green chert, and milk quartz on Blanchard Mountain was exposed by a construction crew. The outcrop is unique for its unusually large chunks of stilpnomelane.

References

External links

* Mountain ranges of Washington (state) North Cascades of Washington (state) Landforms of Whatcom County, Washington {{WhatcomCountyWA-geo-stub