Diablo Lake — Saturday, May. 9, 2015

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

If you're up for just a beautiful drive itself, this is the one to take! After a couple hours of traveling, and viewing spectacular scenery along the way - including Ruby Arm (lake), which was the most amazing color of green - we crossed Diablo Dam (also incredible) and found the trail head. Our family really liked the trail conditions on this hike! The path was a simple, dirt trail, scattered with pine needles and leaves... that's it. No roots or large rocks (except during the 2 brief times you cross boulder fields), it was quite the treat! Our feet thanked us later, ha ha. I was a little confused about how the lakes were laid out in the area... so the entire time I believed we were hiking to Diablo Lake, but later found out we had arrived at Diablo Lake before we even began our hike, and that we had hiked down to Ross Lake instead. Either way, the trail was gorgeous! We saw multiple bird species, and some kind of forest toad, along the trail. We even saw a grouse emerge from the bushes at one point, to which our son exclaimed, "It's a chicken!!!", before it took off... delighting us with the sound of it's thunderous wings. This trail is one you must experience. I will say that it was very difficult for us on the way back up from Ross Lake and Dam... since the trail is impassible because of the rock slide, once you reach the suspension bridge. We knew this going in, but the hike back up from that area was steep, so we were all pretty exhausted by the time we flattened out on the trail again. However, between the unbelievable colors of the lakes, and the "Swiss Alps" like peaks in the distance, this is a hike well worth exploring... We hope you enjoy!