Perry Creek
Jun 24, 2012
by
MikeOnAHike
—
last modified
Jun 25, 2012 11:39 AM
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Perry Creek
- Region: North Cascades -- Mountain Loop Highway
- Agency: Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest, Darrington Ranger District
- Trails: Perry Creek (#711)
- Avg Rating: 3.88
- Why You Should Go Now
- Wildflowers blooming
- Be Aware Of
- Snow on trail
Not a bad trail for a day with questionable weather. There was a lot of variety. The trail starts off in old-growth forest, with giant trees occurring on a regular basis. It then moves onto talus slopes, crossing occasional slides of avalanche debris. It's hard to see the other side of the trail from one of them. I've added a photo to help people find it.
There are fields of ferns on some of the open slopes, and mature maples on others. Some of the wild flowers were especially fragrant. The open slopes give you frequent views of Big 4, as long as you remember to turn around. Shortly before the waterfall, the trail goes back into forest.
The creek above the waterfall is less than knee deep, but not much less. I got pretty wet running across. My wife tried carefully picking shallower rocks to step on, and also got wet. I'm not sure which strategy is better. I was able to warm back up easily, though, since the trail gets steep at this point.
Beyond the creek, there are a couple of flat spots where you could pitch a tent.
I followed the trail to somewhere between 3800 feet and 4320 feet. At this point, there was too much snow to reliably find the trail. The snow was pretty solid, and the forest was pretty open. With motivation, a map, a compass, and microspikes/poles, I bet that you could get up to the ridge. It was getting late, and clouds would have prevented a view, so I turned around.
Photos from the meadows look pretty nice, and I've read that there are huckleberries, so I may come back later in the season.
There are fields of ferns on some of the open slopes, and mature maples on others. Some of the wild flowers were especially fragrant. The open slopes give you frequent views of Big 4, as long as you remember to turn around. Shortly before the waterfall, the trail goes back into forest.
The creek above the waterfall is less than knee deep, but not much less. I got pretty wet running across. My wife tried carefully picking shallower rocks to step on, and also got wet. I'm not sure which strategy is better. I was able to warm back up easily, though, since the trail gets steep at this point.
Beyond the creek, there are a couple of flat spots where you could pitch a tent.
I followed the trail to somewhere between 3800 feet and 4320 feet. At this point, there was too much snow to reliably find the trail. The snow was pretty solid, and the forest was pretty open. With motivation, a map, a compass, and microspikes/poles, I bet that you could get up to the ridge. It was getting late, and clouds would have prevented a view, so I turned around.
Photos from the meadows look pretty nice, and I've read that there are huckleberries, so I may come back later in the season.
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There were tons of huge waterfalls on the opposite side of the valley.
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Mature maples on the talus slopes
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I've highlighted the trail. If you look at the distant slope, you'll be able to see the horizontal line that shows where the trail is. Trace that back to the avalanche debris and you'll have a target. Note that you'll have to go uphill a little bit on the snow to meet up with the trail on the other side. If you go straight across, you'll miss it.
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