Railroad Grade, Park Butte — Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

On a beautiful, hot sunny day, we took a hike up Railroad Grade to see how far we could get and check out the wildflowers. Left at 11 in the morning, and had an easy creek crossing to begin with. Trail is in very good shape and has had a lot of work. Thanks to trail crews. The trail was completely clear of snow all the way to the top of the actual railroad grade, about 5700 feet. Makes a great hike for this time of year. Lots of flowers in the meadows and of course one of the best views in the North Cascades. The area around the top of the trail, however, is still snow covered, so we did not do any scrambling towards the Deming Glacier and Black Buttes. On the way down we had a sudden burst of energy so we decided to do Park Butte also. That trail is not in as good of shape and has many patches of rotten spring snow. But it is still very doable in tennis shoes with no equipment. Don't let the snow stop you. Beautiful view from Park Butte. On the return trip, the creek was much higher. We tried to rockhop but ended up slipping and getting all wet anyway. We would have been better just to wade it. We only met a few other day hikers. Several parties of backpackers and climbers.