North Cascades National Park - Short Hikes Day

After a long arduous hike yesterday, we were ready for a recovery day. So we had some short hikes planned for our day in North Cascades National Park. We were enjoying our camp site in the park, where we cooked breakfast on our cast iron griddle. It was cloudy, and our site was completely shaded, and our solar panels only produced eight amp hours this day.

Our first short hike of the day started right at our campground. We hiked the 1.4-mile Skagit River Trail that included meandering through old growth forest.

All those clouds meant that the trees were draped in moss, and decorated by mushrooms.

Autumn was coming early to the Cascade Mountains, as we saw shades of fall in August.

The Skagit River Trail took us right beside the turquoise waters of the Skagit River.

After that short hike, we made the short drive to the town of Newhalen. "Town" might make it sound bigger than it was, because Newhalen included only a sheriff office, one tiny inn, a visitor center, and a general store. You won't find any restaurants, any gas stations, or any grocery stores for produce--if you don't count the three shriveled potatoes for sale at the general store. We know about the potatoes because we bought two of them. By crossing the suspension bridge in town, we got an overhead view of the Skagit River. That beautiful turquoise water appears from the way the light reflects on the glacial "river flour" suspended in the water. That flour is actually ground rock that was pulverized as the massive glaciers made their way down this river valley.

As we looked down from the suspension bridge, we spied this floating contraption tied to a guy with a computer on the bridge. He was measuring the quality and speed of the Skagit River flow.

After crossing the bridge, we found ourselves on the "Trail of Cedars." This forest of old trees had never seen the axe of the lumberjack. It was the kind of walk where we spent most of our time looking up at these wise old cedars. 

Many of them have managed to survive fires for hundreds of years. Some of their centers were completely burned out, with a big enough spot for Mark to stand comfortably. They survived because all the vessels that carry the water and nutrients to the top of the tree were within the outside of the trunk that was still intact. We got another mile of exercise in another short hike on the Trail of Cedars.

Then we crossed a different suspension bridge to start the Ladder Creek Falls Trail.

We couldn't get enough of those beautiful views of the Skagit River.

The flow of that turquoise water was being harnessed by a hydro-electric power plant on the other side of the bridge. Seattle Power and Light built three dams with hydro-electric turbines between 1920 and 1950. That electricity has been used to power Seattle for over 100 years.

In the 1920s, this new-fangled electricity was a little hard to explain to the average citizen. So the owners built an extravagant garden behind the power plant. To show off the use of electricity in the 1920's, they heated the ground and grew palm trees, banana trees, and exotic tropical plants in a fancy garden. None of those plants could survive the harsh Cascade Mountain winters without lots of electric heat, and soon the wasteful use of power was discontinued. Sad remnants of the fancy garden were still evident on this short hike, but the star of the show was the waterfall coming off Ladder Creek. It's almost impossible to take a good picture of the whole waterfall, since part of it was inside the rock.

After three short hikes this morning, we made the short drive back to our camp site. We loved camping inside the national park with our little trailer! We had a nice lunch of grilled pork chops, grilled zucchini, cantaloupe, and those shriveled potatoes fried up on our griddle.

It was a hardy meal in a beautiful campground. You don't get ambience like that in any five-star restaurant!

We had plenty of daylight for another hike, so we drove east on Highway 20 to the Ross Dam Trail in the evening.  It was a downhill 1.5-mile hike through the forest.

That took us down to our second dam and second hydro-electric power plant of the day. The dam was a curved structure with a unique cement pattern that separates Diago Lake from Ross Lake.

On our right was the beginning of Ross Lake . . .

and far below us on our left was the end of Diablo Lake.

The famous Ross Resort sits on this very remote Ross Lake. There were no roads to the resort, so visitors must walk down the same trail that we just hiked, or take a boat to get to their lodging. On our way back up that 1.5-mile hike, we met people on the Pacific Northwest Trail. They were making the 1200 mile journey that stretches from Montana to the coast of Washington. We'd never heard of this trail, and we read that only around 100 people attempt this trail each year. Those hikers we met on the trail today were about 750 miles into their 1200 mile journey.

Just like many of the national parks we have visited, wildfires have rampaged through the beautiful scenery of the North Cascades. We saw burned tree scars on the side of some of the mountains.

We had read that Ladder Creek Falls were lit up at night. So at twilight we crossed that bridge for a second time this day.

We mentioned that the falls were impossible to photograph in the daylight, and the same was true at night. But the Seattle Power and Light Company uses some of the power produced here to bathe the falling water in different shades of light. The top hidden waterfall changed colors, but was bright pink when we snapped this picture.

The pink waterfall at the top of the mountain cascaded into a purple bowl that streamed down into a blue pool  . . .

that was lost into a red cavern that continued on down Ladder Creek.

The lights continue to change colors as we walked around the gardens. Do you prefer blue/green/purple bridge views . . .

or the red/purple/pink view hues?

It was dark by the time we crossed the bridge for the last time. On our rest day filled with short hikes we managed to log 6.9 miles with 1,781 feet of elevation gain. That's not a very restful day, but when we were wandering God's wonders in North Cascades National Park, we couldn't help ourselves!

Maple Pass Loop Hike--Is it the Best Hike Ever?

The ranger said we needed to be at Rainy Pass trail head before 6:00 a.m. to get a parking space. So we were up at 4:30 (after being awake from that alarmingly loud alarm last night). We left the campground at 5:00 a.m. for the one-hour drive in the dark.

On our first drive through North Cascades National Park, we could see none of the beauty around us. We arrived at the big parking lot at Rainy Pass, and there were only three cars parked ahead of us. It seemed that 6:00 a.m. on a Tuesday may be a little earlier than needed. 

We started our hike of the day just as it was getting light.

We were on the Maple Pass Loop, one of the most popular hikes in North Cascades National Park. The reviews on Alltrails recommended going counterclockwise on this loop. We could see the silhouettes of the mountain peaks around us before we could see the trail plainly in front of us. We had the mountain to ourselves this early in the morning.

We love a good sunrise on a mountain trail!

We didn't take the time to eat much breakfast, so Denisa was glad to find plenty of huckleberries on the trail. In fact, this trail was a berry feast! We found salmonberries, huckleberries, blueberries, and thimbleberries. That made for a nice breakfast fruit salad!

The trail took us over some scree fields, with loose rocks where some of our favorite wildlife make their homes.

While we usually find marmots in these rocky areas, this day we heard the squeak of a smaller mammal--pika. We heard them before we saw them. These little guys usually dart between the rocks too fast to get a picture. But early this morning, this guy posed long enough for a good picture. That's only the second time we have successfully gotten a pika picture in all the miles we have hiked over the last ten years. While they look like mice, they are actually in the rabbit family.

Going counter-clockwise on the loop brought us up a lot of elevation quickly, and our first landmark was Lake Ann. In the sunshine between the trees we had our second wildlife sighting this early morning.

This doe was a little surprised to see hikers up this high so early in the morning.

After 1.8 miles of hiking uphill, we had a decision to make. Do we take the detour to see Ann Lake up close, or just stay on the loop trail that overlooks the lake? We were still fresh this morning, so of course we walked the extra 1.5 mile to stand beside Ann Lake. 

Walking back from that detour we hiked right beside a ptarmigan sitting just a few feet from us. These birds don't scare easily, and she posed for pictures. She was in the same place when we circled back down the trail.

Some parts of the Maple Pass Loop were through thick forest. Notice how these trees don't grow straight up at the base? Instead, they bend downhill at their base before heading straight up. There's a name for this bent base phenomenon--soil creep. It's caused from the weight of snow and ice drifting down the mountain and holding the young tree in that bent position all winter.

The sun is now high enough in the sky to light up the mountains to our west . . .

while the mountains to the east are just hazy outlines in the sky.

We continued to climb, and by now we were looking down on Ann Lake.

Have we mentioned how good the berries were on this trail?

Every half-mile we rounded another curve in the trail and a new set of mountains appeared. We could see the maroon mountains on the right, and a whole new set of snow-laced gray mountains on our left. Pictures just can't do this majestic scenery justice!

We've hiked a lot of trails where you hike straight up, staring at the same mountain the entire time. But we were continually getting new views of new mountains as we walked around the loop.

As we climbed higher, Ann Lake got smaller and smaller.

We have wandered into more of God's wonders on the Maple Pass Loop.

While we were blessed to take a picture of a pika earlier this morning, Denisa will always stop to take pictures of the friendly marmots. This one got quite close as Denisa whipped out her camera.

We've said it before, but you can never have too many marmot pictures!

The same must be true about Ann Lake pictures.

While we only took one picture while we stood beside this lake, we kept taking pictures of it as we circled higher and higher above it.

As we looped ever-higher, another set of mountains appeared in front of us.

After another mile, we got to the highest point of the loop with views of the tallest snow-topped mountains. 

We could see the glaciers hanging on some of the tallest peaks in the national park. With over 300 glaciers, North Cascades National Park has the most glaciers of any park in the contiguous United States. Only Alaskan national parks have more.

This part of the country is known for its rain and cloudy skies. But we were blessed with clear skies that afforded us views of mountain peaks in every direction as we stopped at Heather Pass.

It was at this highest point at the pass that we decided it was time to sit and enjoy the views.

We had company at the top, as this curious marmot was peeking over the rocks.

We ate our lunch with some of the most beautiful mountain views we can remember. This might be our best. hike. ever. That's quite high praise because we have been blessed with so many wonderful hikes.

After a little rest and consuming some calories, we were ready to start our journey down on the back-side of the loop over Heather Pass.

You can see the trail zig-zagging down the mountain in front of us.

After hiking uphill all morning, we were looking forward to some downhill hiking.

We would say the views weren't quite as good on the back side of Heather Pass. With less mountain views, Denisa started taking pictures of flowers. Does anyone else think these mountain flowers look like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Dr. Seuss books?

How could she walk past a butterfly sipping nectar from a purple daisy?

And what about this pine cone that a ground squirrel was working on? The top view of the inside of that pine cone looked like a white flower surrounded by purple. Doesn't that look too pretty to eat?

.

Some of God's wonders are tiny like butterflies and wildflowers, and some of God's wonders are majestic mountains that stretch out as far as we could see.

We didn't take as many pictures of the last half of the loop because we were having to concentrate on our footing. It was steep and rocky, and it was a tough hike down.

After hiking up and then down, we had gone 8.8 miles when we got to the Rainy Lake spur trail. Would we opt to add another 1.4 miles to our total just to see another lake? This was a well-traveled trail that many non-hikers can walk. It was flat and paved and meanders through the woods easily. So we meandered, even though we were really tired by this time.

After that paved trail through the trees, the trail opened up to Rainy Lake views with wooden benches and a rail to keep hikers out of the lake. That's a little too touristy for our mountain lake standards.

So we hiked half-way around Rainy Lake to get a more rugged view without the crowd of people on those benches.

We finished the hike at 2:30. It was 67 degrees, a very nice afternoon temperature in August! We hiked 11.2 miles with 2,431 feet in elevation gain. That's a strenuous day of wandering God's wonders! But we were already thinking that this was one of the best hikes we've ever done in our entire lives. That's high praise from a couple of wanderers that love hiking!