Park Butte — Friday, Jul. 25, 2003

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

Having hiked in this state for over 40 years, I am still amazed at the plethora of trails in our state that provide unbelieveable mountain experiences-some of which I really didn't know were there. My family, including a 10 y.o and 13 y.o,started on the trail at 19:00 Friday night and arrived at the upper Morovitz Meadow (2.5 miles) by 20:15. There was only one other camper at the meadow. Water source is good, although I would not use the stagnant, mosquitoe-ridden pond, but drop a few feet to the running snow melt below. The view from the meadow is spectacular of Baker, and the sunset turned the summit orange, then pink, and purple. The bugs were bad on a windless night! The next day we hiked the Railroad Grade to the very end of the moraine. The views of glacier, 20-story high chunks of ice, and summit views are breathtaking. The grade is slowly eroding and in a couple spots is less than one foot wide. The east drop-off is about 500 feet straight down. Luckily for my 10 y.o. the west dropoff is a gentle 20% slope to the meadow. The hike provides it all: exposed hiking, peak views, minor rock climbing, waterfalls, and meadows. The rocks are sulphur-ridden and contain large anounts of orange iron ore. The hardest thing was to keep my kids off the glacier. With caution at the top (about 6800 feet asl), I took them to the edge of a few cravases, and looked down in. The sight is mind-boggling-looking at the wind and melting sculpture of the Emmons glacier. It actually reminded me of a white version of Arches Natural Park in Utah. The mountain was steaming! 50-foot plumes were consitantly coming form this active volcanoe adding to the mystery and experience. My kids were ready for the summit, which from here looks like a 20-minute walk away with deceivingly gentle slopes. (It actually is about 2 miles with 4,000 feet elevation gain ending with a 30 % pitch to the summit).We did, however, walk the snow field up about 500 feet elevation gain(7400 feet asl), until I felt uncomfortable with them without iceaxe. We all swore to come back and summit and walked the snowfield down to high camp. The spectacular nature of the trek is buffeted by the highway nature of the trail on the Saturday. My complaints include: 1) Folks who do not yield to uphill traffic; 2)hikers eroding the trail by going off the way; 3)dogs on the trail--I am sorry but please, please, unless you are sight-challlenged-LEAVE YOUR PETS AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!; 4)People destroying the meadow by using closed trails, closed because the meadow has obviously been trashed in the past. The folks using the meadow are avoiding the exposure above. The USFS needs to police this area and post Trail Closed signs at highcamp (they are at the lower meadow); 4) Unfortunately this area is too accessible. It would be nice if it took a 10-mile hike to get there. ROCKMAN