Glacier Basin, Monte Cristo Ghost Town — Saturday, Jun. 1, 2019

Hiked to Glacier Basin via the Monte Cristo Road and Ghost Town. We arrived at the Barlow Pass Trailhead around 9 with only a dozen or fewer cars parked. The first section to Monte Cristo is as normal, the river log crossing is easy and hiking in the forest is nice to keep cool. Not very many people at Monte Cristo, we continued up the Glacier Basin trail to the top of the big waterfall on Glacier Creek for a nice break with a cool, breeze coming off the creek. With the warm weather and it still being early season there were a bunch of nice waterfalls coming down off Cadet Peak.

After a break we continued up the steep section of trail. Despite the time of year there was very little wet rock on this part which made things easier. Pretty minimal brush and deadfall as well. Approximately the last mile of trail has snow in portions, there are only two spots that may require bypass in snow at a shallower angle, but both have good bootpaths and the snow was easy to kick-step. In a week or so both spots should be melted out enough to pass. As the last time I was here we went too low after the last closed mine adit and had to scramble up to the trail to avoid wading the creek.

The basin itself is still mostly snowbound, but compared to reports from last year melting looks to be a couple weeks ahead. We hung around for an hour in the warm sun, no bugs yet! I scrambled up to the gap below Wilman's Peaks for a good view down the South Fork Sauk and of the Basin. We saw only one other group up there, who seemed to be going around checking out some of the highest remaining mine openings.

Returning to Monte Cristo we passed three other parties, two with overnight gear. While there were more people down by the town, I was quite surprised to see relatively few people on such a nice Saturday overall. Great time of year to be in the area, with more snowmelt and everything still very green. Glacier Basin was just as nice as last time I went, and a great first outing for my friend who had never been hiking in the Cascades before!