Thunder Mountain Lakes — Saturday, Sep. 13, 2025

Day hiked Upper Thunder Mountain Lake from the Tunnel Creek Trailhead. The one mile of forest road has a few potholes and is narrow in most places, but should be do-able by most cars. The trailhead does not have a privy, and no posted requirements for any passes.

The trail is really 3 parts, first you get to Hope Lake, then take the PCT to Trap Pass, then the final push to the lakes.

The trail to Hope Lake is through dense forest, rocky and rooty in many parts. After Hope Lake the PCT takes you up to Trap Pass. The tread on the PCT is mostly soft, and most parts do not have much elevation gain, and in some places you go downhill. You pass through open hillsides and get a view of Nimbus mountain, where you are headed. There are still a few trickles in the streams here, and also a few campsites visible from the trail. Mountain ash and the blueberry bushes are turning and they, along with the white rhododendron bushes will be beautiful in a couple weeks. This seems like it will be a great fall color hike, while everyone else goes to the North Cascades. The berry bushes were also loaded with sweet and plump berries.

Trap Lake looked quite beautiful and would be a great camping destination in itself, another option for staying overnight and making Thunder Mountain lakes a day hike from there. Once you cross the turn off for Trap Lake, you climb up a few switchbacks and arrive at Trap Pass.

Once I got to Trap pass, it got very breezy, and the shade was a great place to cool down and hydrate and snack. Trap pass was easily the most breezy and comfortable spot on the way back as well. Talked to a couple PCT hikers here about their journey on the Snoqualmie to Stevens Pass section. This spot also had great voice and data signal from T-Mobile, in case you need to check-in with family.

Leaving from Trap pass, a couple narrow sections with slides, not too sketchy but needed some focus. Then uphill through some trees to the first boulder field. The first one was the most difficult, the others were quite OK to navigate. 

Once you cross the boulder fields, the rest of the hike to the lakes is beautiful. It's an open plateau with views of distant mountains, including Glacier Peak, but the views were hazy today from the smoke. 

The lake was beautiful, Mt. Stuart in the distant was barely visible through the haze, but Mt. Hinman and Mt. Daniel were clearer. Quite a few backpackers coming in and looking for camping sites here. A few hikers were also making their way up Nimbus mountain. I did not go to the lower lake, but that would be another place to explore if you have more time/energy here.