Sulphur Mountain — Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

As the previous review stated, overall the trail is in good shape except there was ~40 down trees across the trail. Most of the trees were not hard to go over or under, except there was one big one that I couldn’t get my legs over, so I walked up and around it, as others had also done. The Suite River Road (FR 26) is paved for first 10 miles and last 12.5 miles are gravel, but overall in good shape, not a lot of pot holes that require you to drive super slow. The trail starts ~1/8 mile (on left) past the end of FR 26. Until you get close to the top (huffing and puffing) there are no views. Except for an almost dried up creek on the first half of the trail, there was not water. There was no snow. Unfortunately, it was partially cloudy, so I didn’t get to take full advantage of what I expect is normally an amazing view on a clear day. The majority of the hike is through a forest, so you don’t get any views until the top. There were some blooming wildflowers towards top. Bugs didn’t seem bad while I was hiking up, but once I was sitting at toward the top, the bugs were extremely annoying and wouldn’t leave me alone. While on the Sulphur Trail, I only saw one other group composed of three guys who were going on a weeklong backpacking trip.