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?

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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!