Tag Archives: Maple Pass

The North Cascades offer some of North America’s most spectacular mountain scenery, with more peaks that rise 3,000 feet in the last horizontal mile to their summits than any other range on Earth. But these mountains—in addition to their dramatic topography—also offer sublime intimacies: incandescent moss gardens, snow-melt pools reflecting the sky, twisted Krumholtz trees clinging to the fractured rock, …

  Recreate [ rek-ree-eyt ]: verb: to give new life or freshness to, refresh. To restore physically or mentally.   On a trip across the North Cascades Highway this past autumn I witnessed something that I’d never seen before in my lifetime: 700 cars parked at Rainy Pass. The perfect fall day drew larch lovers from near and far to the …

  With crisp air, deep blue skies, no bugs and vibrant foliage—fall is my favorite time to hit the trail. I’ve hiked over 18,000 miles in Washington State from the wild Olympic Coast to the grizzly-harboring Selkirk Mountains. And while most of the peaks, forests, lakes, and river valleys I’ve trudged across make great autumn destinations; the ten below represent …

The North Cascades are justifiably famous as a summer hiking Mecca. Emerald green meadows and carpets of wildflowers make for idyllic wandering beneath blue skies. But in autumn, the color scheme changes and the high country is ablaze with warmer hues of red and gold, orange and magenta, yellow and purple. At this time of the year, hikers can feast …

Of the two equinoxes – spring and fall – it’s the time around the autumnal equinox that I seem to photograph more.  As summer hands off to fall, and the kids are back in school, my ‘backcountry brethren’ and I head to the North Cascades for our annual backpack adventure. It’s an egalitarian time of the year, with all the world having the same …

by John D’Onofrio With the string of warm, sun-drenched days that we’ve been enjoying this month, the snow in the mountains is melting fast. If you’ve been itchin’ to get out on the trail, wait no longer! Here are some choice hiking options that you can enjoy right now. Sauk Mountain: Virtually snow-free to the top of the ridge, this …