Heather - Maple Pass Loop — Saturday, Sep. 19, 2015

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

First let me say that we may have been certfiably insane to do this one as a day hike coming from Bellevue. It took around 3.5 hours to drive up to the Rainy Lake parking lot from Bellevue, necessitating a 5AM wake-up on a dark, chilly Saturday morning. So. Know that it is not a short jaunt :) That said, this is one of the most spectacular hikes in the North Cascades and it had been on my list of hikes to do since the beginning of summer. Knowing that foliage was peaking this week, I knew I had to get up to Maple Pass or come back next summer. We hiked the loop counter-clockwise as recommended in the hiking guide. It was a good choice and I think we'd do it that way the next time too. All of the complaints about sore knees on the way down seemed unfounded as we had hiking poles and were in reasonably good shape. I guess if knee issues are a serious problem for you, going clockwise might make better sense. Unfortunately it was a very grey, cloudy day and rainy too. We were in misty clouds by the time we made it up through the mountains and into the pass area. That means that the spectacular views of the surrounding peaks were completely socked in. We found ourselves tired, cold, hungry and confused right after the North Cascades Nat'l Park signpost as several way-trails veered off in different directions. We asked fellow hikers coming along which way to go and ended up following their path up and over the next hills to Maple Pass. Maple Pass is spectacular. You can see down into the pass where a few snowfields remain. Foliage was in full effect - reds, oranges and yellows, and bright golden larches everywhere. It was spectacular. The way down was fast and not too difficult. We side-tripped to Lake Ann and also Rainy Lake at the very end - well worth a couple of extra miles. A great hike overall and we plan to come back again next summer when the weather is clear and we can see all of the surrounding mountains.