Was looking for a nice fall color hike without the crowds and this one happily exceeded expectations.
The road past Yellow Aster Butte trailhead is definitely as advertised, rough, rocky, rutty, and narrow, but there were about 15 cars/trucks at Twin Lakes when I arrived at 10am. Many seemed to be camping at Twin Lakes. At 5200’, the setting and views here are spectacular making the trails in this area wide open and scenic from the start.
The trail was in excellent shape and meandered gently up and down through glorious slopes blazing with peak-colored ash and huckleberry. Berries were everywhere and perfectly ripe.
The color continued its crescendo up the switchback section to Low Pass. Once popping over the ridge is where Tomyhoi and the YAB slopes popped into view for the first time to the west. From here it’s mountains in all directions with many of the nearby slopes covered in reds, golds and greens -the classic fall color palette.
I continued on to High Pass directly towards Mount Larrabee and the Pleiades. Larrabee is an unusual-looking reddish colored mountain vertically pinstriped with random white rivulets of rock. It seemed to want to be part of the color show as well and definitely looked the part.
Once at High Pass I continued up wide open switchbacks along the eastern ridge of the basin. The backlighting of the huckleberry in this area was intense. I don’t think I've ever seen it so bright and vivid.
Once atop the final high point, views were amazing. So many layers of mountains in all directions. Redoubt, Luna, and the Pickets to the east & southeast. Shuksan and Baker dominate to the south -each sporting fresh coats of snow, and so many others. Ate lunch, admired the views for awhile, and headed back down.
On the way back, I took it slow, immersing myself in likely one of the last nice days of the year. Just savoring fall every step of the way. It was just what I was looking for -the solitude, the color, and the weather. Only saw a handful of hikers the whole day -all seemingly sharing the same stoke!
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