Park Butte — Thursday, Jul. 21, 2011

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

We set out to camp at Park Butte for the weekend and the trip turned out to more of a Park Bust, for us. As there is very little in the way of recent trip reports in this area I thought I would post one to help out other campers / backpackers (aka people not looking to snowshoe or bag Mt. Baker) looking for more recent information. This, normally, is a beautiful and magnificent hike in late July. We had hoped for a decent trip and a night out under the stars. We thought there would be some snow but were not prepared for long stretches of snow, punching through to our waists, and loosing the trail (what little trail was visible was basically a stream). There were some other hiking groups on the trail but most of them were scaling Baker and not just out for an idyllic weekend jaunt. If you are looking for a summer weekend getaway hike with your low-top shoes, shorts, and lightweight bag; go somewhere else. If you want to hike and camp out here be prepared for camping out in the snow. Hopefully, later in the season the snow will melt and we will return for a summer hike. Oh, and the parking lot for the trail head was only accessible if you have a big truck. We had to park down the road a little ways.