With smoke lingering everywhere, and our weekends left to hike waning, we decided to tackle the infamous Twin Lakes Road and trek up to the lookout. The weather was perfect, minus the smoke, and it was obvious most people were heading for Artist Point as we made the drive up Baker Hwy.
Once we reached the Yellow Aster TH (which only had a few cars at it), the road, as we expected, got terribly worse. There are massive washouts, that will bottom out/high-center anything but a high-clearance vehicle, and the road was dusty and narrow. Towards the top, the switchbacks are incredibly tight, and I had to back-up a few times to correct my turns, as my truck was a bit too long to turn that sharp.
Finally made it up to the lakes, and it was pretty empty, so we applied some bug spray & sunscreen and started our hike. It was slow-going up to the top, not due to difficulty, but more so because of all the picture breaks. Even with the smoke, the scenery in this part of the Cascades is unmatched, and most the peaks were out, well into Canada.
The lookout site was empty, and the shutters were closed. There was a group heading down to Low/High pass, and I'm assuming it was their gear left in the lookout. Bugs were awful at the top, so we took some photos, ate a snack, and headed back down.
On the way back down the road, the Yellow Aster TH parking situation was nuts...had to be close to 100 vehicles. Beautiful fall day for hiking, so not surprised...and everyone was parked respectfully.
Quick stop at Chair 9 on the way back to Seattle...all-in-all a great day!
Comments