Playtime!: North Cascades: Blue Lake

This morning was cloudy and cool and the weather forecast was calling for a 30% chance of rain. We weren’t sure what to do, but we knew that a hike to a high vista with views probably wasn’t a good option.

Yesterday when we hiked to Heather Pass we encountered some other hikers who suggested we hike to Blue Lake. We looked that up in our guidebooks and it was a 4.4 mile round trip hike – sounded perfect!

Dad and I got our stuff together and headed back down Highway 20 – the Blue Lake Trailhead was just on the other side of Rainy Pass so we had to go back the same way we’d gone yesterday.

The weather was rapidly deteriorating as we drove, the clouds were rolling in thick and low and threatening rain. Ahead of us though there was blue sky, but I was expecting that the clouds were headed that way. Once we got past Rainy Pass however the clouds vanished and it was blue sky all around!

We quickly noticed that the mountains had changed, it was a lot more barren – looking like a desert! We quickly surmised that the rain rarely makes it over the ridge. The rest of the afternoon proved that hypothesis as we watched the clouds build on the horizon, however very little moisture fell and us and the day was mostly sunny! It was however, very cold – the temps were in the 40s!

The trail to Blue Lake was well worn and somewhat boring. It wound through the cedar trees until we came to a bowl that looked like it had been recently cleared by an avalanche! We could see several mountains and as we climbed more mountains revealed themselves! We had some more winding through cedar trees before coming out in the bowl yet again, only higher!

We’d gained about 1,000 feet from the parking lot and that was obvious by the snow patches! I think there was actually more snow on this trail than there was on the Heather Pass trail! A few of the snow patches were rather scary to cross as there was tiny ledge to stand on and it dropped off, but we made it!

After what seemed like forever, especially for a 2-mile hike in, we finally made it to Blue Lake! Interestingly enough, Blue Lake was not blue! It was more green, but it was very clear! It was also not very big. We found a nice rock and pulled out lunch!

We were just finishing up lunch when I noticed there was something white blowing in the air. I asked Dad what it was, his thought was seeds or maybe pollen. I had just pulled out my gloves because the wind was making it really cold and one of the white things landed on my gloves and I noticed that it melted…hmmmm….the next one that landed I put on my tongue, it was cold….hmmmm…that white stuff, falling from the sky must be SNOW! In the middle of July it was SNOWING! AWESOME! The light snow/sleet showers continued pretty much the rest of the day, although it was still mostly sunny.

We made our way back down the trail and back to the car. It was about 4:00 when we got back to the car so we decided we go over and check out Washington Pass, the highest point on Highway 20. I admit that I didn’t have high hopes, Rainy Pass was a bit of a disappointment in the views department, so I figured Washington would be the same. Boy was I wrong!

Washington Pass is just amazing! There’s a huge valley surrounded by peaks that are probably 8,000+ feet high! The overlook was a giant rock with a barricade around it – when you walked right up to the barricade you could see the road far below with the mountains soaring high above it! It was a breathtaking view! We decided that we had to come back and bring Mom!