Cascade Pass

Last modified Oct 31, 2009 02:48 PM

Contributors: Susan Elderkin, Big Pants Trekkers

Photo by Jani.

One of the most scenic, accessible hikes in North Cascades National Park (including for kids, at least to the pass) and is consequently heavily used. Views begin at the parking lot and don't quit. Jagged, snowcapped peaks and meadows abound. Possibilities for rambling are endless.

The superb meadows and glaciated peaks of Cascade Pass are better than the best of the European Alps! The trail is graded gently enough for children, though the switchbacks gain elevation steadily. After climbing through forest for the first 2 miles, the trail emerges into meadows and never ending views of Johannesburg, Eldorado, Mt. Forbidden and many more.

After another mile plus, the pass is reached. Camping is not allowed here to allow the area to recover from overuse. Well worn trails lead off in two directions: south to Mix-Up Arm and north toward Sahale Arm, from which the trail dips abruptly to the deep cirque of Doubtful Lake.

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There are 66 trip reports for this hike. See all trip reports for this hike.

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Stehekin River Trail, Cascade Pass — Sep 12, 2008 — austineats

Multi-night backpack

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Many trips are all good and some are mostly good. Although this falls into the latter category, if you are...

Many trips are all good and some are mostly good. Although this falls into the latter category, if you are interested some amazing country and eventual solitude this one has got it. I say eventual solitude because you need to hike the Cascade Pass trial to get to Trapper Mountain (TM, no to be confused with Trapper Peak). The trail up to the pass if well graded and in excellent condition. It grinds on and on gaining <2k in 3 plus miles. The pass has been beautifully restored to accommodate the hordes of tourists who come up for the views. We quickly had a bite and continued east down the Stehekin trail. After a short while one turns of towards Pelton Basin on an equally well maintained trail. There are a few camp sites in the trees that sadly don't get enough light in my opinion. Various trails wander down hill (perhaps the easiest near what is now signed as being for water or the toilet) to the river.

Getting to Trapper Lake at the base of TM requires going cross country slightly SE (down river) in Pelton Basin. Once you've crossed the meadow and are heading up hill again look for two stream cuts on the left side of the talus field. The right hand one of these goes up and follows a faint trail through small trees along the edge of the talus field. Once you've gained the high point there is an amazing bivy site and a small pool of water. On our visit there were bear tracks up to the edge of this bathtub sized pool. The trail continues due east to the saddle between Pelton Peak and point 5973'. For all practical purposes the trail ends here. We found the best way down (if you could call it that) was to the far west end of the saddle. We skirted below the rock toes towards gentle snow which will take you southward. One goes up and over a treed bulge and onto the old glacier just north of Hurry-Up Peak. No crevasses to worry about here. This takes you down to Trapper Lake. There is an official camp site about 50m from the west end of the lake. A large rock is suitable for stashing your food on as we saw no less than 7 bears on this trip.

Once you crossed this saddle into Trapper Basin you might as well be in Alaska! It is fantastic, big walls, hanging glaciers, braided streams running through a brushy meadow... WOW! We climbed Trapper Mountain (look to cascadeclimbers.org for a trip report of the climb itself, not yet up as of 9-29-08) via the north face. Roughly the route goes up the left leaning snow gully, then across the face at mid height on a ledge and then up the dark cleft to just right of the summit. I wouldn't recommend this climb to anybody but the most experienced. The descent itself took hours of down climbing perilous terrain. Just sit back in camp, enjoy the amazing views and laugh at the fools who climbed that crazy face.

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Cascade Pass,Horseshoe Basin (Stehekin) — Sep 06, 2008 — GaliWalker

Day hike

Issues: Mudholes | Water on trail

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September 6th, 2008: Cascade Pass – Horseshoe Basin Mighty peaks, festooned with hanging glaciers – a colorful valley, highlighted by shafts...

September 6th, 2008: Cascade Pass – Horseshoe Basin

Mighty peaks, festooned with hanging glaciers – a colorful valley, highlighted by shafts of sunshine playfully frolicking with the clouds – a beautiful basin, decorated with frothy, cascading waterfalls and burbling streams…this is what hiking is all about. I last visited Cascade Pass more than 3 years ago. It was time for a return visit; only this time, I would be heading on to Horseshoe Basin, which I had not visited before.

My usual ultra-early start did not quite materialize this time: 2 nap-stops on the drive over meant that I was only on the trail by 6:30am. The Cascade Pass trail is smooth and easily graded. Views of the massive north face of Mount Johannesburg are intimidating and humbling; the periodic thunderclaps of ice/rock fall from the numerous hanging glaciers only add to the show. This time round, I was entertained by an even better showing as shafts of sunshine spilling over Cascade Pass played amidst the shadows on the cliffs.

The 3.7mi to Cascade Pass always go quicker than expected (a testament to the beautiful trail) and I was soon picking my way through the meadow just short of Cascade Pass. My heart began beating just that little bit quicker, in anticipation of one of my favorite views in Washington. Mellow morning sunshine greeted me as I crested the saddle and there before lay the magnificent show that is the Pelton Basin: a lush green valley, cut by a silvery, twirling stream and walled by gorgeous peaks, separated one from the other by gleaming glaciers.

Now on previously unseen territory, I dropped down into the basin, still on a smooth and easily graded trail. Then, after rounding a shoulder of Sahale Arm, I switch-backed somewhat steeply down into the Stehekin Valley – all of the elevation gained on the climb up to Cascade Pass was lost in this drop. Just shy of the low-point I crossed the outlet of Doubtful Lake (up high on Sahale Arm). This was an extremely pretty spot – small, rocky pools momentarily gathered the water before gently releasing it down granite slabs – so I relaxed and soaked in the atmosphere for a bit.

Shortly after the crossing of Doubtful Creek I reached the fork for Horseshoe Basin. I took a left here and headed along the (slightly brushy) old, abandoned mining road. A scant 1.5mi later I broke out of the brush and into the basin: horseshoe-shaped, surrounded on 3 sides by towering cliffs, with numerous waterfalls gleaming in the sunshine as they tumbled down the cliffs. Just gorgeous! A flower and rock-strewn floor led me deeper into the basin, before a final talus-field escalator ended the journey at the Lower Horseshoe Basin headwall.

The Black Warrior Mine, at the end of the basin, nestled near the base of a frothy waterfall, grabbed my attention – not much of a mine aficionado, I still found it pretty cool and poked around for a bit, before heading back out to admire the waterfalls. I had harbored some thoughts of trying to find a way up the cliffs to the Upper Horseshoe Basin, but was more than satisfied with my day, so didn’t expend any effort on that pursuit. I just sat and enjoyed the setting for about an hour before heading back.

Additional Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani/sets/72157607183510971

Stats:

- Distance: 17.8mi

- Elevation gain: 5,000ft

- Hiking time: 10.25hrs

- Total trip time: 17.5hrs

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Cascade Pass — Jul 20, 2008 — PNWTexan

Day hike

Issues: Snow on trail

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We wanted to start out early but ended up at the trail head at about 10:00 in the morning. Couldn't...

We wanted to start out early but ended up at the trail head at about 10:00 in the morning. Couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day with all the sunshine and no clouds. There were only a few small blow-downs on the trail, with no real effort to get over them, and two patches of snow to cross. We saw lots of birds, and a marmot on the trail doing their usual songs and whistling.

We turned around at the pass and went back down rather quickly, much faster than going up!

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Cascade Pass — Jul 17, 2008 — Lunapeople

Day hike

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We took my visiting 13 year old nephew to Cascade Pass for some spectacular North Cascades scenery on this clear...

We took my visiting 13 year old nephew to Cascade Pass for some spectacular North Cascades scenery on this clear Thursday. Amazed at how many people were also hiking it.

As we expected from the North Cascades NPS reports, there was no snow except two inconsequential patches at the very end of the hike, and a big pile right at the Pass which our five year old enjoyed. Meanwhile our 20-month old toddled around happily so altogether a very nice hike.

No bugs either!

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Cascade Pass — Oct 08, 2007 — meganerd

Day hike

Issues: Snow on trail

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The road is open only to the Eldorado gate (MP 20) because they've removed the temporary culverts at the washout...

The road is open only to the Eldorado gate (MP 20) because they've removed the temporary culverts at the washout a half mile farther. This plus the snow meant that I had the entire N Fork Cascade River to myself today. How often can you say that when it's not pouring rain? The trail was in great shape and predominantly snow free, although the depth increased to about a foot really quickly, and then slowly after that, totalling 1-2.5 feet at the pass. Basically, almost the whole traverse after the switchbacks is on snow. The trail is still defined, so no routefinding issues, and no worries about steep snow slopes.

I was VERY surprized though to look up part way through the traverse and see that an avalanche had stopped about 15 feet above me sometime over the last couple days. At first I reasoned that it was probably that warm rain yesterday really loading up the snow (it released from the vegetation), so I continued. Soon, another one, and this one actually crossed the trail but, bizarrely, it was only about 4 feet wide where it crossed. It fanned way out though beyond that, so there was a considerable amount of snow. And then, just before the pass, ANOTHER one which crossed the trail but ended about 15 feet below. Finally I made it to the pass through annoying variable breakable crust, only to be blasted by a strong east wind rushing out to greet that big low pressure system that's coming in. There was a lot of high clouds drifting through during the day, but I got lucky and it became almost totally clear while I was near the pass, and the sun was just about to go behind the ridge (I got a late start).

On the way back down, I began to realize what a precarious position I was in when I noticed that the avalanche blocks were dirty, while everything surrounding had a dusting of fresh snow which would have happened last night when the cold front came through AFTER the warm heavy rain. Looking over to the shaded north facing slopes across the cirque confirmed my fears - no avalanches. These slides I was crossing had come down earlier that day because of the sun, which was still shining... I wasn't in that position for very long - in fact I think that a release had actually already happened everywhere that it was really possible, but it was still nerveracking, and I'm still kicking myself for not initially reading the situation better. Funny thing was, it just didn't feel dangerous. I didn't see or hear a single avalanche all day and it's difficult to percieve an imminant threat when everything is static and calm. No excuses though, I should have turned back. So, long story short, I can't really recommend going all the way to the pass right now.

The rest of the way down was totally uneventful and I got back to my car right at dusk.

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Location: North Cascades -- North Cascades Highway; North Cascades National Park

Average Hike Rating

4.11 out of 5

Based on 9 votes

Roundtrip	7.0 miles
Elevation Gain	1800 ft
Highest Point	5392 ft

Features: Lakes; Waterfalls; Fall foliage; Mountain views; Wildlife; Ridges/passes

Guidebooks & Maps: Day Hiking: North Cascades (Romano - Mountaineers Books); Best Hikes with Kids-Western Washington & the Cascades; Green Trails No.80 Cascade Pass; USGS Cascade Pass

Driving Directions

Drive Hwy 20 to the little town of Marblemount. Keep going straight when 20 turns left and you will be on Cascade River road. Drive the 23 miles to the end. You will follow the Cascade River the whole way; it takes nearly an hour on Cascade river road.

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