Absolutely stunning right now. Walking through a sea of larches with my jaw literally dropping. And that’s with today’s weather ranging from light rain, to partly cloudy, to dark clouds. While I personally wouldn’t want to be here during a downpour, this hike doesn’t need a perfect sunny day to enjoy. Highly recommend once reaching the pass to continue down the Cutthroat Trail for at least a mile for a wider display of red bushes and a larger curved larch that must be one of the oldest beauties out there. And of course a high up view of Cutthroat Lake. Plenty of creeks in the first three miles that are currently easy to cross and good for dogs to drink from but we made use of extra water we brought for the remaining miles. We ended up doing over 12 miles and 2300ft of elevation gain by choosing to add on a portion of the Cutthroat (Creek) Trail. Enjoy!
Trip Report
Cutthroat Pass via the Pacific Crest Trail — Friday, Oct. 10, 2025
North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20
Type of Hike
Day hikeTrail Conditions
Trail in good conditionRoad
Road suitable for all vehiclesBugs
No bugsSnow
Snow free
Comments
bigchodesqueezer on Cutthroat Pass via the Pacific Crest Trail
how were the crowds and parking?
Posted by:
bigchodesqueezer on Oct 11, 2025 03:18 PM
youcandoit on Cutthroat Pass via the Pacific Crest Trail
Maybe due to it being a weekday with questionable weather, they were pretty okay. A hiker said he took the last parking spot at 7:30am but he probably meant in the parking circle with painted lines because at 9am there were still plenty of parking along one side of NF-600 where it’s allowed and on Hwy 20 nearby. At 3pm there were quite a few empty spots in the parking circle. No unusual crowds heading up in the morning, until we got closer to the top and then hit a nonstop train of early bird hikers and backpackers heading down. Not a hike for solitude as from every trail direction at the pass we could see hikers. We did find a quieter lunch spot on rocks down on the Cutthroat Trail. Then on the hike down we did have to regularly give incoming afternoon hikers way, but it was very quiet in last couple of miles back to the trailhead. Overall not bad and quite clean trail, although we did see one dog poop bag (grumble grumble)
Posted by:
youcandoit on Oct 11, 2025 05:44 PM