We went to check out the larches at Cutthroat Pass today, starting from Cutthroat Lake trailhead east of Washington Pass, and got down from PCT on the other side. Arrived at Rainy Pass area after 10 to drop a car, we had to find a parking along with 1000 other cars that were already parked along both sides of the highway, but the timing turned out to be good. The lake was completely in the sunlight which was beautiful, we were walking towards the sun almost entire hike so larches were pretty bright and warm. Larches were at the peak I guess, and there were so many of them. Really enjoyed the hike! Fall is absolutely fantastic with larches!

Holy guacamole the trail traffic and parking lots today! As beautiful as the trail was, I should've chosen a different hike today. Cars were parked at least a mile down the road from both Cutthroat and Maple Pass trailheads. The crowds on the Cutthroat Pass trail were almost as bad as Colchuck Lake gets. 

My gripes aside, the larches were nice and are at peak. I would guess, depending on weather, the needles will have fallen in 2 weeks. The huckleberry foliage has started drying out so that pop of red will start waning soon up north.

Porcupine creek is pretty low right now so it's an easy crossing.

I saw a few Douglas squirrels and heard a few pikas.

This was a prime alignment: peak larches+perfect weather+weekend. İt seemed like all of Seattle was there, and the wisdom of the crowds was true.

We had a great time despite the crowds.

İ wanted to post a comment more for the land managers reading these TRs: the size of the crowds this weekend at Heather/Maple/Cutthroat Pass TH was really massive. İ observed a lot of risky behavior on the state highway with drivers blocking the highway, vehicles parking inside the white shoulder line, parking where it was clearly posted "no parking" and many (most?) without the required passes.

İf NFS rangers had been up there to issue tickets, they could have probably bought themselves some nice new equipment from all the ticket revenue.

Showed up at 8:30 and had to park half a mile down the highway. Bathroom at the trailhead had at least 20 people waiting in line. When we got back to the car there were even more people parked down the highway and a bunch of cars that ignored the no parking signs near the trailhead. It's full larch madness, both the crowds and the trees.

Arrived around 8:30am- parking lot was full and cars parked a mile down route 20 both sides. Line for bathroom 25 people long, no toilet paper so bring some. The trail alternated busy to very unpleasantly crowded. Had to pull of to let folks pass extremely often. Several people had multiple dogs taking up the path, dogs off leash. Was jumped on by a dog. The larches and views and weather were perfect today, but the crowds were some of the worst I’ve seen.