Today is the 100th Anniversary of the NPS. It is too bad that the NPS still doesn't allow dogs in the backcountry. Here in Texas, dogs are permitted in our State parks and I have seen no issues.

With a group of 13, it is difficult to make any national park work. North Cascades is one of the few whose system makes it somewhat feasible, but we had a backup plan as we didn't want to travel 2,000 miles and then not find what we wanted.

Even laying down some ground work (and working through many permutations), I still spent an hour at the Wilderness Permitting Center in discussions/negotiations for our permits, but in the end it worked out as we wanted.