Ashland Lakes — Saturday, Jul. 21, 2018

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

As everyone has stated, the drive up is much like Mr. Toads wild ride... We took our kids (6 & 4) for an overnight at upper Ashland lake. The trail is excellent for kids and I mean excellent. So many fun bridges. We found a campsite at both upper and lower but took a nice sized one at upper. It had a fire pit with cooking stove and some leftover firewood. There are port a potty’s up here but we used the old fashioned forest method. Tons of bugs. Used spray probably 50 times. (Maybe exaggerating, maybe not...) Plenty of parking with toilet at trailhead as well. Not really a swimming lake. More of a bog, mosquito breeding lake. Kids were a little bummed they couldn’t swim. But all in all a great first overnight backpacking experience for them.