How many days do you need in north cascades national park

Unless you live in Washington or are trying visit all the National Parks in the US, there’s a good chance you’ve not heard of North Cascades National Park. Located in north central (western central) Washington, the park is relatively small and relatively new. Because it was developed relatively late, the park has some strange connections to the power company that fuels Seattle. The park’s boundaries are at least 3 miles from the string of lakes that are dammed in the area to produce power and the power company maintains the trails leading to the boundaries. Although we have no complaints about the trail maintenance, it was strange to frequently have to hike 3 miles just to enter the National Park.

Another thing to know about North Cascades is that it is rugged—and STEEP. In four full hiking days in the park, we hiked over 14,000 feet of elevation gain. There are some milder hikes and options for the less avid hikers but we suggest that you do a lot of training if you are visiting this park. The altitudes are not bad because the trails start so close to sea level. But the gains are just killer. We had this park in our sights all year and worked to build up fitness and endurance to enjoy the park. It worked—we had an absolute blast, surprising even ourselves with how much we enjoyed ourselves despite the difficult terrain.

Here’s how we saw the park in five days:

Day One: Arrive and get your bearings. We stayed in Concrete, WA. There is not much lodging near the park and that’s the best we could do to guarantee wi-fi which we needed for work. Our lodging was really lovely, including a small hot tub overlooking the aqua Skagit river, however, it meant we had to drive 1-2 hours to reach every trail head. On our first day, we drove all the way up to Washington Pass. It was rainy, the visitor center wasn’t open yet, and we didn’t quite know what to do. We ended up hiking up the Diablo Lake overlook trail, having lunch at a spot overlooking the lake, and hiking back. If we had planned ahead, we could have booked a ferry ride back from the end of the trail to our car and that would have been excellent. This trail was not actually in the National Park as it was less than 3 miles from Diablo Lake, however it was well-maintained and scenic. After we hiked, we stopped at the visitor center to get more recommendations and headed home for an early evening to get some work done. An alternative hike for Day 1 might be Blue Lake off of 20 (past Washington Pass). This is a four mile out and back with only about 1000 feet of elevation gain. Like Diablo lake, it’s not technically in the park but it definitely has all the feel of the North Cascades.

Day Two: Armed with several recommendations from the park rangers and hikers we follow on Instagram, we decided to make this our big and scary day. Sourdough Mountain showed up on every list we found but would require a 5.5 mile hike with 5000 feet of elevation gain. We prefer to stick around 2-3 thousand feet of elevation gain and dread anytime where 1000 feet of elevation gain per mile lasts for longer than a mile. Who are we kidding-we dread anytime we have to climb 1000 feet in a mile. But, the views were said to be spectacular and the challenge was too much to resist. We agreed to move slowly and steadily and to make the best we could of the experience. Right away, the trail started climbing straight up. We couldn’t do anything but laugh at the difficulty. The climb was long and slow—we made it up in just under 4 hours. And the views were indeed spectacular. Pack lots and lots of water for this hike—you will drink more than normal due to the steep climb.

Day Three: After Sourdough, you’ll need a recovery day. The best the North Cacades can give you is a 10 mile hike with only 2000 feet of elevation gain. Thankfully, the hike is gorgeous and you’ll enjoy going as slowly as you need to. The hike is the Heather/ Maple Pass Loop that departs from a large parking area on Highway 20. If you want to trim mileage, you can get it down to just over 7 but we did 10 to get side trips to Lake Ann and Rainy Lake. We took the hike counterclockwise in order to enjoy a slightly slower hike up to the ridge. The day was glorious with sprawling views of the North Cascades for several miles of the hike.

Day Four: We took another ‘easy’ day today to hike up to Thornton Lake overlook. Once up there, we couldn’t help but finish the hike down the to the lake, which added a lot of difficulty to the day. We ended up clocking about 4000 feet of elevation gain over 11 miles. Many people who hike this trail do so to reach Trappers Peak, for which a side trail cuts off right before the overlook of the lake. Doing Trappers Peak adds significant elevation gain and requires comfort with scrambling and route finding. We thought we weren’t up for it but after our hike for Day Five, we realized we might have been. Maybe another time.

Day Five: This is the real winner of North Cascades. We didn’t mean to but we saved the best for last. Cascade Pass and Sahale Arm. If you don’t have another big hike in you, Cascade Pass is about a 2 mile hike and then you can hike as much as you want and turn around. To make it all the way out to Sahale Arm is a 12 mile day (6 miles out and back). This entire hike is in the park as it starts from National Park land deep in the North Cascades (accessed via a long but well maintained dirt road out of Marblemount). This hike required another 4000 feet of elevation gain, with some of that being very, very, steep scrambling to get up to the arm. And it was worth. every. step. Simply mesmerizing. After you reach Cascade Pass, the whole hike is open with seemingly unending views of the North Cascades range. As you rise, more mountains become visible. You’ll eventually look over Doubtful Lake and then summit the arm to a popular camping area. Some people base camp out of here to summit Sahale Peak. Others just come for the stunning views in the remote wilderness of the Washington mountains. Camping here is definitely on our list.

If you do all of the hikes we suggested, you will reach over 14,000 feet of elevation gain like we did. You’ll definitely earn yourselves a stay somewhere with a hot tub.

Pro Tips:

1) The North Cascades have a lot of open terrain where you are hiking on exposed trail. Pack extra water because you will dehydrate more quickly. And pack sunscreen for both your skin and lips.

2) There are ample places to get ice cream. The diner in Marblemount has absolutely delicious milkshakes, even if the owners are a bit grumpy about having to make them. They also have a wide selection of pie. We also stopped (twice) at a farmstead run by Cascadian farms. The homemade ice cream was divine, as was the caramel sauce and berry shortcake.