Tiffany Mountain via Freezeout Ridge — Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

If you want to hike with solitude amidst immense Pacific Northwest beauty and walk up a mountain on a trail, then this is the hike for you!  On a Tuesday in early October, I arrived to the Freezeout Ridge TH parking lot at 10:15 to find two other cars there - both parties were just setting out - and there would be no other hikers on the trail the entire day!

The road to the trailhead is decent-enough.  Just be careful.  The “paved” section of FS Road 37 is broken in many places, so while it may be paved it is rougher than the smooth gravel section higher up.  Also, there is no sign of the dead moose anymore.

The trail is in pretty good shape.  The lower burned forest is quite haunting, actually.  On the day I hiked it, the wind was quite strong, so the creaking of the dead trees against each other and the sounds of the waving trunks sounded like ghost whispers.  It was pretty cool.  There are sections of the trail that navigate through beautiful small larch groves - which are at peak right now.

The boot path to the summit of Tiffany Mountain is easily marked.  In fact, that trail seems to be more trafficked than the continuation of Freezeout Ridge Trail.  The winds sure made things interesting - going up the trail, the wind seemed to be helping me up the steep section.

At the top are 360 views as written in the trip description.  It is incredibly beautiful up there.  When I arrived, one of the two parties was just finishing up and headed down - so I had the entire summit to myself for a good 20 or so mins before the 2nd party approached (and even then, there was plenty of room up at the ‘top’).  I lingered for quite a while and practiced identifying peaks with a compass and map.  And, I also got to see a free air show by the (presumably?) Whidbey Island Naval Air Station - two fighter jets careened around the peaks.  In fact, I was higher up than they were!  I’ve never seen an air show by looking DOWN upon airplanes before!  That was pretty cool - and, thankfully, it only lasted a few minutes.

Bird life was really low - I was hoping for more…but it is October, after all.  And, it was extremely windy.  I did see a few Mountain Chickadees, American Robins, Clark’s Nutcrackers, a raven, and a small flock of Dark Eyed Juncos.  Besides chipmunks, no significant or any mammal sightings.

I keep pinching myself as to the beauty of this trail - and the solitude I had while hiking it practically alone.  You don’t get that on too many North Cascades hikes in early October!

What another wonderful trail in the North Cascades!