I made the long drive from North Idaho to Winthrop Washington and secured my room for the night before I continued towards the North Cascades and my hiking destinations.
Winthrop is the nearest town to Washington Pass and the North Cascades, at least from the east side. It was reimagined as a tourist destination in the early nineteen seventy’s and rebuilt in an old west theme. It is kind of neat to look at.
This place was recommended to me, but like a lot of other businesses in town it was closed. The sign said due to staffing shortages. I tried another one but found it pretty disappointing.
Day one, hiking part of the Maple Pass Loop to Lake Annie. Winthrop is over thirty miles from the trailheads, in other words a good long haul. On the drive to Washington Pass you gain 3700 feet of elevation.
A couple of miles past Washington Pass, I came to the Rainy Pass Trailhead where the Maple Pass Loop starts and ends and is also where I paid my fee using my America the Beautiful Pass. That’s a lot of passes for one sentence.
The trail starts in mature forest and climbs using a couple of switchbacks towards Lake Annie. It was well made and moderately steep. On much of it I was treated to filtered views of the mountains on the other side of the valley. Interestingly neither this hike or the one I took on the second day are in North Cascades National Park. Both are located right at the edge of it but are inside and managed by the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
On the way here I drove through over a hundred miles of smoke filled skies. West of the trailheads heading towards Lake Ross were worse. Visibility was down to 100 feet. Here near the pass, I was above most of the smoke and the views were much better.
After a mile or so the trail left the mature forest and crossed several avalanche chutes on its way to a large cirque basin. The views were outstanding.
Looking up from the trail the granite cliffs were imposing. There was a lot of mountain ash along the way with their distinctive orange seed pods.
A mile and a half in I got my first views of Lake Annie with it’s unique little island. On the far side of the cirque you can clearly see some of the scars or chutes left by avalanches in the past.
I continued up the increasingly steep trail and the view of the lake became much better. Here for a couple of reasons is where I decided to turn around. I was about two and a half miles in and gained just under a thousand feet from the trailhead.
The Maple Pass Loop Trail continues over, you guessed it, Maple Pass and returns along a steep ridge overlooking Rainey Lake. The entire loop is seven and a half miles long and gains a little over two thousand feet. I talked to some folks who were finishing up the loop and they said it took them over six hours. I didn’t have that much time and wasn’t ready to tackle another grand of elevation today. I settled for five miles round trip and some outstanding views. Maybe next time.
Day two, the Washington Pass Overlook and hiking to Blue Lake. After driving the long thirty two miles or so to Winthrop to spend the night at the Virginian Inn. I got up at six in the morning to make the trip again.
At Washington Pass there is a short access road leading to a parking lot with a short trail to some amazingly scenic views. Unfortunately today was much smokier. The only other time I drove across the North Cascades was during a rain/fog event so I still had much better views this time.
The smoke did add an interesting effect on this view looking back down the pass at the surrounding mountains but still I could have done without it. At least it wasn’t as bad as my fiasco of a trip to Crater Lake last year.
Looking the other direction was a view of some impressive rock spires known as the Liberty Bell and the Early Winters. My next destination, Blue Lake was just on the other side of them.
Like the previous days hike, the trail started out in a mature forest and eventually worked it’s way up to some open meadows. Even through the smoke the views awesome.
A little less than two miles in I came to a junction with the trail that accessed the rock spires for serious climbers. I read that before they built the North Cascades Highway in 1972 that climbers had to hike in sixteen miles just to get to the base of these imposing rocks.
No wonder they weren’t summitted until the 1950’s.
At two and a third miles in I got my first views of Blue Lake. A few patches of late season snow could still be seen on the far side.
Where the trail makes it to the lake you will have to cross a small creek on a makeshift bridge of logs and rocks. Like most mountain lakes the water clarity is amazing.
The remains of an old cabin are near the shore of Blue Lake. I have no idea how old these ruins are or who built it and why but it is interesting to see.
At the cabin a side trail continues along the shore and gains elevation above the lake in a hurry. You should definitely take this short loop trail called the Tarn Loop Trail. In addition to having better views of Blue Lake it gets you away from the crowd as most people hiking to the lake stop as soon as they reach the shore. I kind of liked the upside down reflections of the surrounding landscape.
Across the lake the Early Winter spires and the Liberty Bell provided the background. By now the smoke was getting thicker.
The Tarn Loop Trail was under half a mile long and did provide access to a tarn which is a small mountain pond.
Beyond the tarn an open slab of rock gave me a nice view across the valley towards Cutthroat Peak and Whistler Mountain.
On the way back I was able to appreciate some of the small views. It looked like this boulder was trying to support it’s own little ecosystem. So after all was said and done I managed a little over five miles including the Tarn Loop Trail and a little over one thousand feet of elevation gain.
Back at Washington Pass I stopped for some of the little views also. Beauty is sometimes where you find it.
Between both days I hiked maybe ten miles and gained over two thousand feet. Now it was time for the long drive through the smoke back home to Idaho.