Marmot Pass, Home Lake, Constance Pass & Dosewallips River Road — Friday, Jul. 11, 2025

We set out for a two night three day backpack starting from Marmot Pass Trailhead.  We dropped a car at Dosewallips Trailhead and were dropped at Marmot Pass TH.  Privy at Marmot but not at Dose. We are mid level backpackers who may not hike as much as we could but certainly love being on the trails.  

The first 2-ish miles were gorgeous, not too steep.  We stopped and were surprised we had already hiked 2 miles. The trail is as described on WTA, climbs/gets steeper.  Camp Mystery was pretty cool with a nice layout for camping complete with a stream.  The trail from Camp Mystery to Marmot Pass was challenging, step by step to the pass and some gorgeous views!

Marmot Pass to Home Lake - there is a tricky snowfield that does have a clear path but is on a steep slope so use caution.  Boulder Shelter looked like a nice place to camp; a stream, a meadow to camp, and even the shelter area has flat places to set up.  We continued on but probably should have stopped there.  The hike to Home Lake was 'long' and hot, seemed to continue forever. But on the forever trail were beautiful views of peaks I don't know the name of, amazing to ponder scree fields, huge boulders, wildflowers...wildflowers galore!  Home Lake was mosquito heavy!  It was a bit of a challenge to find tent space, we needed three spots.  The lake is the water source and was visibly clean (filter of course).  Plenty of fish who didn't eat as many mosquitos as I would have wanted lol.  It took us a while to get to Home Lake so we ate and went to bed which was good as we were getting eaten.

The next morning sun greeted us by shining on the mountain by the lake as well as the birds singing us to waken.  The mosquitos were too horrible early morning but we didn't dally in getting ready for our day.  The trail to Constance Pass from Home Lake is steep right from the beginning and continues until the Pass and beyond.  Up and up for a while. A small snowfield that is avoidable before the pass. Constance Pass on this clear July day gave us views for miles!  We saw the tip of Mount Tahoma (Rainier), many, many mountains I couldn't start to name going on and on.  It was breathtaking.  Onward to the even steeper climb to the top out of 6200' elevation.  Whew, the climb from Constance to whatever we were on was steep!  One person said no way was she climbing up to that (she did) but it is very intimidating and rewarding.  The views from Constance are amazing but the views from the top are phenomenal! Now down.  Traversing scree fields were tricky!  There is a path but nature seems to take it over so it's walking on the side of your shoes kind of traverse.  The views continue to amaze for the next couple of miles until the trees (different beauty).  Down, down to Dosewallips.  There were a few down trees on this part of the trail which were all under or over, not an issue.

Dosewallips camp was mosquito free (yay!) and thankfully we found a nice spot despite no reservation needed and it being a Saturday.  The hike out from Dose was easy, no obstacles.