We lay inert in our sleeping bags, the relative warmth dampening any motivation to emerge from our thin shelter into the moist clouds dancing about. Stillness.

Our journey to this moment had been long. Our milage from the newly reopened Rainy Pass Trailhead, and our ascent into the fall glory via an immaculate trail were simple enough. However, this was not our intended destination. Other plans had been made well in advance, a long drive to an east side trailhead completed, stomach flu (or food poisoning) ensued one mile from the car, an unplanned stay in a hotel, a long drive back to drop off the sick hiking partner, and finally a drive to Rainy Pass to make something of what should have been four days of meadows, lakes and peaks. I’ve been to Snowy Lakes as recently as two years ago; however, it made a good quick alternate (with an attempt to minimize time in the car and maximize time on the trail).

Visiting Friday and Saturday allowed us to enjoy this segment without the thru-hiker masses, and observe some of the recent changes to the area including: a new trail from the PCT to the lakes, and a toilet at the junction and Lower Snowy Lake.

After some early clouds shielding the high peaks covered in powdered sugar snow, we ascended to the lakes in the golden glow of the first evening sun of autumn. Many ripe larches caught the low angled rays, other larches haven’t received the memo but will undoubtedly with this week’s incoming weather. After enjoying a peaceful night, we were pleasantly surprised to have a nearly rain-free hike back to the car passing in and out of clouds catching the occasional glimpse of far away places.

Nothing beats fall in the North Cascades regardless of a change in plans.

We backpacked one night out to Snowy Lakes thurs-friday this week starting from the Cutthroat trailhead for a total of 22miles (11 each way) and almost exactly 4000' total elevation gain.
The first 5.5 miles up to Cutthroat pass is well graded with gentile switchbacks, and is very busy with mountain bikers so pay attention and avoid using headphones so you can hear people coming up on you fast. A good amount of hiker traffic here as well, but not as much as usual for this time of year since many assume it's still closed due to the Blue Lake fire (its not). Once at the pass you connect with the PCT and the views don't stop the entire hike, it's a really spectacular section of trail!

The next 1.5 miles is pretty flat until you round the corner and start to drop down to Granite pass, where you loose about 700' vert sharply with a series of tight switchbacks down a rocky face. Really impressive trail building here. The views down into the sweeping valley and Swampy Creek are jawdropping. You are also able to see your destination lakes now, sitting in between Tower Mountain and Mount Hardy.

Next you have about 2 miles of undulating slog, and currently all water sources are dry until you get to the junction of the Snowy Lakes trail. There is a nice large meadow camping area here that I'm assuming gets a good amount of use by PCT hikers. Now its time to climb again, with a 600' vert push up to the lakes. The lakes are quite dried up right now and not nearly as glorious as we had hoped, but the surrounding views more than make up for it. Many good campsites around both the lower and upper lakes. We chose a campsite perched on a knoll high above the upper lake with 360 views and carried all our water up from the lake adding about 5-6 lbs to our packs. We were the only people here the entire time which was awesome, but also eerily quiet and I didn't sleep well listening to all the littlest sounds! No wildlife sightings but there were hand sized bear prints and lots of what I assume was coyote or dog prints in the mud surrounding the lake.

The morning was completely free of frost and temps were much warmer than we expected. Be aware that a big weather event is coming in this next week however, so conditions here will change quickly. We may have caught the last snow-free days for the season. Larches were about half turned above 6200' with some areas that had a lot of gold and red. Not much for color yet in the lower elevations/ valleys though. Another week or 2 for peak larch color. 

Hiked up to Cutthroat Pass and set up camp on our first day, did a day trip out to Snowy Lakes for day 2, then hiked back to our car on day 3. The scenery was non-stop, gentle grades pretty much the entire way. Snowy Lakes were a highlight, tool a dip and napped after before heading out.

Bugs were not bad at all, more grasshoppers than anything. Would've felt comfortable camping without a tent. The pass gets windy at night and there are a couple of great spots tucked in the trees that helped block the majority of it - still have great views. Even if it's calm going to bed it will pick up. Views for Persied Meteor shower were incredible. Smoke would creep in the evening but be gone by the morning.
Pretty much no water sources - we never saw a spring off the trail from Cutthroat Pass so would plan on packing what you need. There's a couple of small water spots within the last mile to Snowy Lakes but that's about it.

The trail is in great condition, very gradual climb to Cutthroat pass. Last water source is before Cutthroat pass and the next one is close to the intersection to Snowy lakes. There was only a few groups at the lakes, we camped at the lower lake. The vault toilet by the lower lake can be found following some cairns, the view is spectacular. 

There was wildfire smoke from the Sourdough fire and the fires near the Canadian border. We still had good visibility, but there was a faint smell of smoke in the air. 

Just incredible. Did an overnight up to Snowy Lakes.
The scenery the entire way was magical, all the way thru sunset and the walk back out to the trailhead the nextday.
Lots of water options between TH and cutthroat pass. No water between Cutthroat and Granite Pass. Next water sources were as you approach the trail intersection for Snowy Lakes, hold out for the one that is flowing, just before getting to the turnoff for Snowy Lakes trail (or obviously at the lake). Sunset was WILD! There was also a lot of helicopter activity thru the valley, we’re guessing it was in support of the fire that was happening at Diablo Lk. Bugs were around, a fair bit annoying, but tolerable. A swift wind would help. A snowless journey, as well. Funnnnn