Sahale Glacier Backpacking in North Cascades National Park, Washington

 North Cascades National Park. For a long time it had been on my list. Despite I wanted to visit, I didn't study the trail for this trip at all. The reason was, we originally planned to backpack in the other region (Spider Gap). Unfortunately the road to the Spider Gap was closed, so we spontaneously went to North Cascades National Park. 

To backpack there, permits are required. We just showed up at 2 p.m. at the wilderness center and asked if there is available permit on the day. The only permit available on that day was Basin Creek camp. Without knowing much, we said, "Sure"

The ranger was a little worried, because it will be 2000 feet elevation gain and 2000 feet elevation loss and we still had to drive to the trailhead. We said it would be fine. The ranger was from Mass, so she got excited when she found out we came from Mass. 

View from Cascade Pass

The first three miles from trailhead is switchbacks in the woods. Those switchbacks are really gentle. I felt like flat. If it was in New England, you would have to straight up in 1 mile instead of 3 miles. Once we got out of the woods, it has open vista. Extremely beautiful. With short distance, we already reached Cascade pass. Completed the uphill of the day. The view was gorgeous. Then we hiked down into the valley. 

Porcupine

The highlight of the downhill part was a porcupine. Evening is the golden time for wildlife sighting. Not only because it is their activity time, but also they sometimes come out on the trail since man-made trail is so much easier to walk for wildlife as well. When I turned the curvy part of the trail, a porcupine was on the trail. "Oh" I stopped a couple of meters away from him. He was also, "Oh" and stopped. We stared at each other for a while. I tool pictures. Then he thought, "OK. I need to go off trail" and went off in the woods. I love wildlife sighting. It is precious. After 3 miles, we settled down to the Basin Creek Camp. It is designated campsites with 3 spots. Cooking area is common and bear locker is there. This is nice because we didn't need to carry a bear canister. I don't like to be forced to talk with other campers in the common area. I know that a lot of people like "chat, chat, chat" with hikers but I am an introvert and hiking is the time to be away from chatting with human beings (probably I am minority though in that sense). There are another party of 3 guys from Seattle were at the cooking area. I let Mr.N to interact with them. 

Beautiful Basin

The next day, we traced back to the trailhead, but we did two side trips. The first one was short to the small basin. It was worth it. Countless falls could be seen coming into the basin. Nobody was there and really peaceful. 

The second side trip was a big one. First we went back to Cascade Pass, which required 2000 feet elevation gain, then from there, 2.3 miles with 2300 feet elevation gain of side trip to see Sahale Glacier. To go to Sahale Glacier is a popular dayhike, so there were many people on the trail. I wouldn't say it was peaceful trail, but, BUT, the view was incredible. Probably one of the best views I've had. No wonder how popular the hike is. The trail is a lot of scree portion and I wished I had not carried the big pack. I got tired with total of 5000 feet elevation gain of the day. The glacier was amazing, and the all surrounding mountain scenery was FANTASTIC! We took a long break to soak into the view. WOW. I wanted to stay longer, but it was past 4 p.m., so we started descending. Going down was easier with admiring views every step. There are many mountain goats with babies. Cute! After Cascade Pass, switchbacks were endless, but we came back to the parking lot. We saw a black bear on the road near the trailhead. 

WOW

What a view-packed 2 days!

Goat Rocks Wilderness (Cispus Basin-Cispus Pass, Old Snowy Mountain, Goat Lake, Hawkeye Point), Washington

Following backpacking Three Sisters loop in Oregon, we drove to Washington and backpacked in the Goat Rocks Wilderness.

Due to some trail closure in the Northern part of trails in Goat Rocks Wilderness, we had to drive to the different trailhead from the one we had planned. We drove a quite bit, so we couldn't start hiking until 4 p.m. Despite the late start, thanks to a long daylight, we were able to make it to Cispus Basin by 7 p.m. It was 6 miles with 1500 feet elevation gain. The first part was in the forest, but once we got out of the treeline, it was surprisingly beautiful. Cispus Basin is DEFINITELY one of the most beautiful places I have hiked in. When I turned the trail and the entire Cispus Basin entered into my vision all of sudden, I was wowed. The picture below is the first sight of Cispus Basin. I thought, "How could so beautiful place exist?" We camped at the basin. It was an awesome spot to spend a night. It was super great, not only due to the scenery but also because nobody else was there. Compared to Three Sisters loop in Oregon, which was over 80F (27C), Cispus Basin was very cold.

Cispus Basin

 

Next morning, we did some day hike without big packs. From Cispus Basin to Cispus Pass is only a mile. Generally I love going up to a pass, because I can see the other side of mountain and whole new valley view.

Cispus Pass

This time was not an exception. The other side has an amazing view, too. In the distance, there was sea of clouds. This is PCT and I read somewhere online this portion of PCT is the highlight of Washington section. Even this is one of the highlights of the entire PCT. We saw only two PCT hikers going south. North bound PCTers were not yet in Washington in July.

Mount Adams

 

Basalt

A little after the pass, we saw a really good view of Mount Adams. From Goat Rocks Wilderness, you see two giant mountains: Adams and Rainier. Mount Rainier is much more famous, and I had only Rainier in mind, so first I thought it was Rainier, but according to the direction we noticed it was Adams. Both mountains are massive. Another interesting stuff was basalt. Very interesting geology there: the first basalt I saw in person was Devil's Postpile in Sierra. Now this one in Washington. This one you can see much closer with 1 minute off-trail scrambling. Not only these near the Cispus Pass area. You see another basin as you can look in the below picture. What a view-packed area!

Cispus Pass

 

Another basin

After some day hike exploring Cispus Pass area, we came back to the Cispus Basin. We packed up our tent, ate snacks, and left Cispus basin to head for Old Snowy mountain. It was hard to leave super beautiful Cispus Basin. Every single step was full of beauty. Leaving Cispus Basin, we saw another basin. Coming into Cispus Basin, this basin was just above us, so it was not easy to see it. 

 

 

Going to Old Snowy

Going to Old Snowy mountain is surprisingly beautiful as well. This wilderness area is really continuously pretty. This is unusual! Picture in the right is the way to the Old Snowy. What a lovely meadow with magnificent mountain range. Usually I'm not a fan of meadow itself, but in this case, combined with mountains, it made the scene so dramatic. 

The side trail to Old Snowy Mountain is not an official trail, but there is very clear used trail. The view is....fantastic! 360 view. One direction, you can see Mount Rainier. Luckily no clouds covered it. You see surrounding beautiful mountains all over the area. As the name indicates, a lot of snow remains and it makes the scenery even more magnificent.

At Old Snowy

At Old Snowy

 

 

mountain goat

On the way to descend from Old Snowy, we noticed mountain goat in the distance. Big group of more than 20 including several babies. The trail in the picture is PCT going down. That was not the way we went, but someday if I do PCT, I will go there! After 10-15 minutes, they went down to the gully---so we were lucky to spot so many goat. 

 

 

Goat Lake

We continued to descend the trail, and actually we did off-trail to go to Goat Lake. Goat lake is frozen and actually it will remain frozen through summer. As you can imagine, camping by Goat Lake was cold. It was truly beautiful and worth spend a night there, although more than 10 other tents were there for camping as well. It is only 6 miles from the closest trailhead to the Goat Lake, so I saw some people there clearly not experienced backpackers. Despite of that, we were able to find a spot with great view (actually the photo was take from our camp spot), and have solitude from other campers.  

Next day, our plan was to hike out, but we did a small side trip to Hawkeye Point. Ah again wonderful view. Mountains surrounding and Rainier in the distance. Perfect weather and temperature. Goat Rocks wilderness rocks. We were the first person who reached the Hawkeye point of the day. At the top two of us and other 2 people only. We took time to enjoy this special view. By the time we descend to the side trip junction, we saw 5+ people going up there. There was a party with kids, and the parent asked us how the view was. We said amazing. They asked if the Rainier could be seen and we said yes. Then the father told the kids that they would see that. Kids were sitting on the trail in aloof. Typical funny scene.

From Hawkeye Point

I fell in love with Goat Rocks Wilderness. So beautiful. I'm grateful that I was able to hike there.