Darrington and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

[simage=3347,200,n,left,] For Canada Day, we took an extra “pinch” day on the Monday to create a four day weekend and headed south to Washington State, looking for some new and accessible hiking options in the North Cascades. We headed down to the Mountain Loop Highway that connects Darrington with Granite Falls and gives access to lots of day hikes that are accessible early in the season (snow in the Alpine lasts until late July in our part of the world).

We stocked up on provisions at Trader Joe’s in Bellingham and then headed for Darrington. It was shocking and sad to see the scale and impact of the mudslide that devastated a community in Oso, as we drove through the re-established road through the area to Darrington.
We car camped at the basic Bedal campground and had the campsite mostly to ourselves, especially on Monday and Tuesday.

On the cloudy and damp Sunday we did the hike to Lake Twenty Two. Some wonderful large trees and a nice small lake with impressive cliffs as a destination. This is a very popular and easy hike, perfect for a cloudy day.

The weather on Monday morning was clear and sunny, and we hiked the nice switchbacked trail through decent second growth forest to the summit of Mount Dickerman. As we apprached the alpine, there was still an extensive snowpack, which made the hiking much tougher. The summit views were spectacular, with views north to Mount Baker, east to Glacier Peak, and west to the Olympic Peninsular. There’s a whole range of other impressive mountains and ranges in view – a real top of the world vantage point.

Canada Day was also perfect, but an incredibly hot day for this time of year. We chose well and hiked the lovely train through old growth forest along Elliot Creek to Goat Lake. This is such a great day hike early in the year, or would be a fabulous early backpack destination.

On the way back to the border, we did another shop at Trader Joe’s for a myriad of dried goods and cheese and wine. We also managed to stop on the BC side of the border and buy lots of fresh raspberries and blueberries. A great Canada Day.
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