Lake Ann/Maple Pass Loop #740

I was off for a long two days of getting photographs for a couple of projects, and I built up my plans around it being fall and hunting for larch trees while I was at it. First stop: Rainy Pass on the North Cascades Highway for a quick dose of Maple Pass loopness. I was surprised at how little traffic I had to deal with driving over one of the best fall mountain drives in our state. About 3:30 hrs from home I hit the trail at 11:00am as quickly as I could comfortably go...I still wanted to hike in the Harts Pass area later in the day!

The 1 1/2 miles to the Lake Ann junction went quickly and I continued on up toward Heather Pass. The scenery instantly opens up and excellent views at Lake Ann and the surrounding peaks and Maple Pass. Up some fairly steep switchbacks and suddenly I was at Heather Pass, ablaze in crimson fall color from the huckleberry plants. Now I had views to the western mountains as well, and the clouds blew in a cold wind and occasional drizzle. But it never became socked in to block my views. Onward to Maple Pass...and larch trees began to pop up more and more. This area was averaging only about 50% there on the larch color, but the smaller trees were perfect! This made for incredible foreground subjects when looking across the huge basin of Lake Ann and all of the mountains in every direction. The roaming on the ridge of Maple Pass was like magic in how the clouds would swoosh around and the mountains in all directions always looking different in different light. Once over the 6900' highpoint it was a VERY steep last two miles out to complete the trip to the trailhead. It was painful to even think about hiking the loop in the opposite direction and UP this portion. In the upper meadows just below the pass a group of three blue grouse were just above the trail posing for me. They were huge! Farther down in the forest I had a new life bird for myself when I enjoyed three pine grosbeaks for over 10 minutes! They were beautiful! It was a great hike and I don't know why but I only saw about six people on the entire trek.

At 2:30pm I was back in the rig and eating my lunch while heading farther east...farther into my adventure weekend...next stop Harts/Slate Pass!