Dock Butte — Friday, Sep. 11, 2015

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

The trail overall is in decent shape - although it's quite rocky and rooty in the first 3/4 mile, it is easy to follow and the views get better and better as you climb. The trail is very exposed towards the top - very little tree cover for the last mile. The sun was pretty relentless today, and I wish I had brought a hat and more water! Once you get up to the meadows...I swear you can hear Julie Andrews singing...it is that picturesque. Fall colors are emerging, painting the meadows pretty reds, oranges and yellows. Just about a quarter mile from the summit, the trail forks. I went left for the "straight up" route, which is steeper and involves a little bit of scrambling over boulders...but it's shorter than the trail winding around the base of the summit on the right. The summit is not too big, but big enough for maybe 10 or 15 people. There is room for about 15 cars at the trailhead, and the privvy looks brand new...complete with a recycling bin and trash can inside. Pretty nice compared to other trailhead privvies! The drive up isn't bad - there are signs the whole way pointing you toward Blue Lake (the shared trailhead). The worst section of road is the first 4 miles of Forest Road 12 - there are a bunch of potholes, sometimes covering the width of the road, but it improves after that. My compact made it up fine going slow through the potholed sections. My gps tracked roughly 4 miles for this hike, about 1500 feet elevation gain. It was roughly two hours for me, roundtrip. Excellent views of Baker, Shuksan, Twin Sisters range, Baker Lake and North Cascades :)