North Cascades N.P. - Cascade Pass/Sahale Arm Photo Gallery by Eric Noel at pbase.com

North Cascades N.P. - Cascade Pass/Sahale Arm

The only road within North Cascades National Park proper heads to just below Cascade Pass and because of this road this hike offers the easiest accessibility to the alpine areas of any in the park. Additionally, this trail affords the most scenery for the least amount of effort of just about any hike in Washington. Naturally it is one of and probably the most popular trail in the park because of this. The scenery more than makes up for the crowds. I visited for the first time in August 2003 and came back again in October 2003 with a party visiting from out of town. During the August visit a fire was raging to the West somewhere in the Glacier Peak wilderness and this led to smoke pouring over Johannesburg and up the North Fork Cascade River drainage. In October the skies were clear and the foliage was turning red at the onset of Autumn. Here are some of the pictures from this beautiful hike:

Afternoon Forest Scene With Light Filtered Through Smoke	Doubtful Lake Island	Cascade Pass, Triplets, Cascade Peak, Johannesburg	Mount Torment
Hiker Descending Cascade Pass Trail	Wildflowers	Booker Mountain	Johannesburg
Doubtful Lake Basin	Pelton Basin from Cascade Pass in Autumn	Sahale Arm in Autumn	Sahale Arm in Summer
Wildflower	Johannesburg	Smoke Over Johannesburg	Fall Foliage
Deer Again	Eldorado	Sahale Southeast Ridge	Cache Col (Slide)
Sahale Peak	Johannesburg Waterfall	Hidden Lake Peaks	Trail Ascending to Cascade Pass
Sun and Smoke	Sahale Arm Rock Field	Cache Col	Hiker Along Talus Field
El Dorado Glacier	Fall Colors	Johannesburg Glaciers	McGregor
Stehekin River Valley	Pelton and Magic	Pelton Area Basin	The Triad
Yawning Glacier	Sahale	Cascade Peak Greenery	Glory Mtn
Pelton Basin Hillside	Pelton Peak	Sahale Arm	Sahale Ridgeline
The Triad	Mt. Torment	Sahale Basin Rocks and Greenery	Pelton and Friends
Rocky Meadows	Johannesburg Waterfalls	Stehekin River Valley	Magic Mountain
Edge of Sahale Peak	Cascade Pass from above	Hidden Lake Peaks, The Triad, El Dorado	The Triad
Glory Mtn and Trappers Peak	Smoke in Cascade Valley	El Dorado Glacier	Glory Mtn, Trappers, and Pelton
Cascade Pass Below	Trappers Lake Area	Autumn Hillside	The Triplets
That's No Ordinary Rabbit! Run Away! Run Away!	Johannesburg Slopes	Sahale Peak and Doubtful Lake	Cascade Peak
Mt. Forbidden...er...make that Mt. Torment	Wildfire Smoke Over Johannesburg	Mix Up Peak	The Triad

comment |

fred		16-Mar-2011 05:19
now halfway through march, i cannot help but sense those little tingles racing along my tender spine while studing your pictures. the rain now falls hard on my roof as the thoughts within begin to contemplate about the upcoming months when the snows begin to dissolve under the weight of summer. thank you

carol		30-Jun-2006 07:17
one of my favorite hikes!

Anita L.		11-Aug-2005 14:35
my favorite so far. the cascades are just gorgeous.

Eric Noel		21-Oct-2004 06:28
Yeah early, or late, in the season the snow can be a pain if there is a nice trail to be found if the snow were not there. That's another reason, aside from the great Autumn colors, why visiting in late September or early October might be the best time of year.

John Colwell		19-Oct-2004 15:48
Nice Pics. You are right that Cascade pass is one of the easist places to get alpine scenery. But the hike over to Doubtful lake and beyond when there is a foot of snow on the ground was pretty much a grunt for me. Apparently for others, too, because I was all alone. Timing is evrything in the Cascades.

click on thumbnails for full image