Heather - Maple Pass Loop — Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025

This beautiful trail provides high mountain views with quite moderate elevation gain. We got to the trailhead at 10:40am on a Saturday and were able to park in the lot. While we encountered plenty of people on the trail, it wasn't as crowded as I had anticipated, though I expect there will be more folks on the trail as we head into fall.

We decided to hike clockwise to get the steeper section out of the way on the uphill, and I think this was a good call - on the descent, I didn't actually think counterclockwise would be much less steep, just longer. That said, I think the trail would be lovely hiking either direction. The trail didn't seem particularly steep on the way up - there were a few brief steeper sections and big steps, but these were interspersed with nicely graded trail sections. We had shade for many of these steeper bits, and when we broke out into the sun with wide views approaching the pass, the grade was generally mellow with a nice breeze.

After a nice break at the top taking in the views, we headed down the loop. We enjoyed some ripe berries along the trail and paused briefly to chat with a marmot.