When people make lists of the best hikes in Washington, Cascade Pass and Sahale Arm is frequently near the top. It’s a superlative hike in North Cascades National Park that starts in the forest and transitions through nearly every important ecological zone in the North Cascades, offering excellent variety and stunning views. Most people stop at Cascade Pass, which is a fine destination by itself, but the real gem is the trek up Sahale Arm. It’s here that the views really open up among the blueberry fields lower down on the Arm, and eventually taking you above treeline and into the rocks and talus fields, before eventually arriving at the foot of the Sahale Glacier.

Although Sahale Arm can be done as a day hike, the best experience is to do it as an overnight. Getting a permit here can be difficult - when North Cascades opens its permit reservation process, all of the reservable spots for this area always fill. Getting a walk-up permit usually isn’t any easier, requiring a very early morning and a lot of standing in line, especially in the summer. Permits become somewhat easier to get in the fall though, which is also my favorite time to get out and hike, and so I took advantage of a few nice weather days mid-week to be able to snag a permit for early October!

I always like to start my hikes as early in the day as possible, and I arrived at the parking lot shortly after sunrise. The walk up through the woods was mostly uneventful, although I was definitely feeling all the weight I had on. I decided to bring two cameras, two lenses, my big tripod, and a bunch of other photo gear on top of my usual overnight setup, plus a bunch of water as I wasn’t certain about the availability of water along the way this late in the season. I distracted myself from the weight by looking for bears, as this time of year they are often seen in the area looking for berries before they are gone. No bears today for me though, which was disappointing, since nearly everyone else I saw on-trail managed to see one! Popping out of the forest, I was greeted with a beautiful scene of the sun peeking over the ridge.

Almost to Cascade Pass! Good morning sun!

I wasn’t far from Cascade Pass, so I kept moving at a good clip and quickly reached the pass. After a quick and early lunch (I had a sandwich in my bag I didn’t want to carry much further!), I turned towards the trail for the Arm. The trail here diverges, and one path heads up the Arm and the other towards Stehekin. I’ve actually never been to Stehekin, but I think the idea of hiking up and over Cascade Pass to Stehekin (or the other way) would be kind of fun! The view down the valley towards Stehekin is spectacular too. Anyway, it’s near this trail junction that the bottom part of the arm becomes visible, and the whole area was ablaze with lots of fall color.

Looking towards Stehekin on a beautiful fall day!

After leaving the trail junction, I started up the Arm. This section of the trail is relatively steep compared to the trail to Cascade Pass, and is also in full sun, so it’s kind of relentless, especially on the day I visited, which was rather hot for October. I was thankful to have along my hiking umbrella, which looks ridiculous, but does an excellent job protecting me from the sun and dropping the air temperature by a few degrees. Although the heat was problematic, the views kept me distracted. The higher you climb, the better the views get, and not long after leaving Cascade Pass you get some much nicer aerial views of the entire area. It was at this point I noticed a little bit of smoke lingering in the air from towards Stehekin. The smoke wasn’t forecast, but the smoke forecasts aren’t very reliable, and I wasn’t entirely surprised given the time of year and the number of fires in the area. Although I don’t like smoke, it does make for a cool haze effect!

Beautiful color above Cascade Pass, which is just out of view near the center. Mixup and Johannesburg loom large. You can just see the trail leading from Cascade Pass towards Stehekin too.

Pretty soon, the trail starts to change. The grade flattens out a bit, and the big blueberry patches start to appear as the trees start to get thinner. The trail eventually crests the ridge of the Arm and the views change really abruptly. I think it’s kind of a fun spot on the trail because your attention shifts from Mixup and Johannesburg to Sahale, Doubtful Lake, and the Stehekin Valley. The fall color up here is superb, with big carpets of red and orange mixed in with lots of other colors - a rainbow!

The first views of Sahale, its glacier, and some of the cool “hill” looking moraines. I would wind up camping on the top of the moraine at the center of the photo!

The last “classic” view of Mixup Peak as the trail turns the corner and enters the berry patches.

The berry patch is probably my favorite section of the trail. It’s a relatively gentle grade with views forever, and great fall color. There’s also a good chance of seeing a bear, but on this day, that was not in the cards for me. It was pretty frustrating, because as I mentioned previously, every hiker I talked to had seen a bear. Just not my day I guess. I even ran down a trail on a tip from a hiker about a big bear that I had missed by 30 seconds to see if I could spot him, but he was already gone by the time I got to where I was going. Oh well!

It’s hard to get a sense of scale from the images, but the berry patch section is probably 3/4 of a mile long. As you continue upwards, there are fewer and fewer trees, and eventually you are above treeline completely. The views here are simply stunning, and I think that fall is probably the best time to be here, just because of all the color on the hillsides. The only downside on the day was the smoke. The higher I climbed, the more the smoke became an issue. I don’t mind the haze, although it did create some weird color casts at times when it would move through in thicker patches. Still, it’s hard to complain about such lofty views!

The classic fall view of Sahale Arm. Really beautiful color!

Looking back down the trail with a smoky Stehekin River Valley in the distance.

A wider view of the area with Sahale Arm at the right and the Stehekin River Valley at left.

Looking down the arm from the start of the rocky section.

Eventually the good times and easy walking on the Arm leads to the start of the rocky section. At this point, you’re only standing about 1/4 mile and 500’ below Sahale Glacier Camp, but it’s a rough 1/4 mile. I’m not sure if it was the smoke, the heat, the altitude, the weight, or just me being a little out of shape, but I suffered through this section. That was surprising to me given that I’ve done a lot of climbing in the past, but I guess age and time catch up with all of us I guess. My advice for this section is if you are doing Sahale Arm as a long day trip, stop just before the rocky section. The views are just as good from here.

After the sufferfest, I mercifully arrived at the camp and managed to snag a site on top of one of the moraines. The campsites in this area all have small rock walls built around them to deflect the wind, and they are really private. Getting a site on top of one of these moraines is definitely recommended, as I think it offers the best views.

The view everyone comes for, looking straight down Sahale Arm with Doubtful Lake below. This was the view from my camp!

After an extended break (I was pretty worked), I set up camp and took in the views. This is the kind of place you can sit for hours and just see what you can see. I spent some time trying to identify the surrounding mountains, watching hikers on the arm, looking for bears and goats (I didn’t see any sadly), and more. One interesting quirk I noticed was that the ridge just to the east had a healthy stand of larch trees, and there was even a lone pioneer on the ridge I was on. I was surprised to see larch this far west, but I guess it isn’t that far from the more larchy areas further east.

The smoke was still blowing in from time to time, and it was a little annoying on the lungs, but as the sun started to set it got pretty magical. Smoke is great for the light at sunset, and there was lots of excellent light to be seen in nearly every direction. I had two cameras and was frantically moving between them trying to shoot everything that caught my eye. As the sun went down, it went down over some distant peaks through a thick layer of smoke, leading to some amazing colors. A stunning way to end the evening for sure!

The sun going down through a layer of smoke made for some beautiful light.

Mt. Formidable in the distance at sunset.

Blazing colors on distant ridges just before sunset. This is why I haul a telephoto on trips like this!

The sun setting through a thick layer of smoke made for some gorgeous light.

After the sun set, I got set up to shoot some night sky images. This time of year isn’t great for Milky Way, and there was half moon up, so I didn’t aim for that. Instead, I decided to shoot some star trails and a couple of nightscapes with my tent, which was simple and just required that my camera was set up on the tripod near my tent. It was a beautiful evening so I didn’t even bother with the rain fly on my tent, and I sat and watched the stars for a while until I fell asleep. After a while, I woke up and turned the camera off. I love shooting star trails like this!

Star (and moon) trails over my camp. If you look carefully, you can spot the headlamps from hikers heading down into the Doubtful Lake basin, as well as the headlamps from some climbers at their bivy high on Johannesburg.

The next morning, I awoke to much more smoke than the day before. It was pretty thick and I wasn’t happy about the effects on my lungs, but I was happy that I would probably get a nice sunrise. I wasn’t disappointed! The pre-sunrise had a beautiful pink glow on the high clouds above Doubtful Lake, and when the sun finally popped up, it did so right on the gendarmes of Booker Mountain, and so I watched it blink in and out as it passed behind the mountain. Really beautiful scenes!

Beautiful pink light from outside my tent window just before sunrise.

The sun peeks out from behind Booker Mountain. The peak in the distance is Goode, the tallest peak in North Cascades National Park. On the left is Buckner.

A panorama of the scene at sunrise! Lots of smoke, but beautiful.

The classic view of Sahale Arm is bathed in smoky sunrise light.

After sunrise and breakfast, it was time to break down camp and start the long walk back to the car, but not before stopping by to take a couple of pictures of the world’s greatest backcountry toilet. I know what you are thinking - a toilet? Really? Well, I challenge you to find a backcountry toilet (hell, any toilet) with a better view than this. I’ve been around the mountains all of my life, and this one really only has competition with some of the toilets in the Enchantments. Pretty killer view if you ask me.

The way down the rocky section was a lot more pleasant than going up, and not just because I was heading home. At this time of day, there were no day hikers about, just a couple of other backpackers heading down to the car after their overnight. It made the trail really quiet, and I didn’t really start encountering people until about halfway down Sahale Arm. Just the way I like it!

Two backpackers descending the rocky section on the way down Sahale Arm.

Wide open views like this with no people? Yes please.

This image is not oversaturated - those berry bushes are just perfectly backlit by the sun behind and the smoke. When I first shot this, I thought something had gone wrong with the camera, but the light was just perfect to be able to do this. Really neat.

On my way down, I kept an eye out for bears. I figured that fewer people in the morning might lead to an opportunity to see one. But again, I got skunked, although I did manage to see a flock of ptarmigans, a very over-excited chipmunk, and a guy illegally camping next to Doubtful Lake. The ptarmigans I was happy to see, as they have a lot of personality and were fun to watch. The chipmunk was clearly well-fed (please don’t feed the wildlife!) And I have no idea what the guy illegally camping was thinking, but please don’t do that either.

The small island in the middle of Doubtful Lake through the smoke.

A guy illegally camping on the shores of Doubtful Lake (yellow tent, center). This isn’t a campsite, and you can’t get a cross-country permit for this area either. I don’t understand people.

After a while, I arrived back at Cascade Pass, where I encountered the bulk of the day hikers. It was actually kind of jarring to go from the relatively quiet arm to the hubbub of day hikers, but that’s okay. Lots of people were out enjoying the fall weather!

This trip was definitely one of the highlights of my year. It’s a lot of work getting to Sahale Glacier Camp with an overnight pack, but I thought it was worthwhile, and I also think it is worthwhile as a day hike too. I think for next time though, I want to go back in the fall with a 500mm or 600mm and see if I can finally spot some bears!

Journal

Cascade Pass and Sahale Arm