Cascade Range, a chain of mountains in Oregon and Washington, U.S., and in British Columbia. It takes its name from the great cascades of the river Columbia, which are situated at the point where that stream canons through the range by a pass 4000 feet deep. The course of the mountain-chain in the United States is from north to south nearly parallel to the Pacific, and about 110 to 160 miles distant from it. Southward it is continuous with the Sierra Nevada of California; northward it connects with the range which forms the boundary between British Columbia and Alaska. The chain throughout most of its course is heavily wooded, chiefly with evergreen conifers. Mount Jefferson is 10,200 feet high, and Mount Hood 11,225 feet. The principal peaks in Washington state are Mounts Baker (10,700 feet), Mount Rainier or Tacoma (14,444 feet), and St Helen's (12,000 feet). In this region volcanic action is not quite extinct. In the British Columbian portion the range comes nearer the coast.