Thunder Creek, Fourth of July Pass

Headed out early Saturday morning, picked up our back country permit in Marblemount and were on the trail by 9am or so. We headed up the Thunder Creek trail to McAllister Camp. The trail is close to 100% melted out, but there are some blowdowns. We took off our boots to wade across McAllister creek since there were only slippery logs to walk on and somewhat deep water. Saying it was cold is a total understatement.

We were the only folks camping at McAllister camp and we only saw one other person on the trail on Saturday. There were a few sprinkles, but for the most part it was sunny and warm. I thought it was crazy we had the place to ourselves! There were mosquitoes out in this area, so we were glad we brought our DEET.

After we set up camp, we headed up to Tricouni camp to check it out. It was nice, but I think McAllister was a good choice. We had a little beach to ourselves with a waterfall across the river. All the way to Tricouni is melted out also.

On Sunday we packed up and decided to make a detour to check out Fourth of July pass. We had some better views of the peaks on the way up. Snow started at about 3300 feet and we decided to turn back after finding a nice ledge to check out the views. We heard from a couple that most of the camps are melted out at Fourth of July camp, but that they didn't see footprints in the snow past the camp towards the pass.

This is a very pretty area for some shoulder season backpacking. There are only peak a boo views of the great peaks around, but the mossy forest and greenish river are very beautiful.