Sahale Sunrise

Sahale Arm is a stunningly beautiful place, unique in the North Cascades for its diverse ecosystems, incredible views, and accessibility. In a single hike, you can travel through most of the important ecosystems in North Cascades National Park, in a landscape that’s absolutely superlative. Plus, it’s not that hard of a hike either. So, it’s no surprise that it’s popular. In recent years, the combination of so many people getting outdoors along with the proliferation of information online has resulted in significant crowds on this and other popular trails.

Those that know me well know that I hate crowds, and I especially hate crowded trails. I go into nature for quiet and solitude, not to be standing shoulder to shoulder with half of Seattle. To solve this problem, I employ three different strategies. First, I choose less popular hikes, or choose-your-own-adventure hikes where a trail may not even exist. Second, I go on rainy days or at times of the year where a popular hike might not be that desirable. And finally (what I did here), I go at odd times of the day or at night. For this trip, I rounded up my friends Jon and Brian, grabbed my 500mm lens, and left my house at midnight with the goal of starting our hike in the dark and arriving at Cascade Pass before sunrise.

Our plan worked perfectly and we made really quick time from the parking lot up to Cascade Pass. Hiking in the dark was very pleasant, as the temperatures were cool and there were no people to stop and wait for. We arrived at Cascade Pass well before sunrise, had a quick fuel up of 2nd breakfast, and started our way up Sahale Arm. Our aim was to be at the “corner” on the Arm for sunrise. This spot is past the initially steep section, offers great views in several directions, and is usually a good place to spot some wildlife. We were all hoping to see some bears, but instead we got a very curious mountain goat along with the alpenglow and first rays of sun hitting the surrounding peaks.

This setting is phenomenal - I actually think it might surpass the sunrise view from the Sahale Glacier Camp in some ways. Because we were above the corner, we were able to move up and down the flat section of trail through the blueberry bushes with relative ease. I think I walked up and down that section three or four times looking at the surrounding peaks as the light hit them.

At one point, Jon and I had wandered pretty high up on the flat section and encountered a group of ptarmigans out for a morning walk. They happened to wander into a patch of very bright red blueberry bushes, and the backlight from the rising sun made for one of my favorite images from the day. Normally I get really meh images of birds, but this morning was really special!

At this point, we hadn’t seen another person, and it was awesome to have the place to ourselves. Jon had to leave a bit earlier than Brian and I, and ran down the trail back to the parking lot. He was to run into hordes of people, as we will soon see. But Brian and I continued upwards, and had the place mostly to ourselves as we admired the views. Eventually we started to see a few people coming up from the parking lot (a few people asked us what time we started hiking and were surprised when we said how early we started!) and a few people coming down from the camp, but for the most part, it wasn’t very crowded.

The views from this part of the trail are among the best in the North Cascades, and in my opinion, are among the best in the world!

We stopped our ascent just below the rock pile, the last half mile or so of very steep rocks that approach the Sahale Glacier Camp. This section of the trail is a little rough, and unless you are camping, is probably something you can skip, especially in the fall when the glacier isn’t looking as great as it does earlier in the year.

On our way down, we were treated to some great fall color, and we encountered more wildlife: pikas, deer, marmots, and more ptarmigans. But the craziest wildlife encounter was the hordes of people. All at once, it seemed like the flow of hikers coming uphill onto the Arm went from a trickle to a flood, and we were suddenly coming face to face with half of Seattle. I’m not really exaggerating when I say half of Seattle - Brian and I ran into someone we both work with on the way down. That sort of experiences is usually reserved for something like Mt. Si.

As we neared Cascade Pass, our pace picked up as quickly as we could muster, like two fish swimming upstream against the flow of people coming up the trail. We briefly stopped at Cascade Pass for a snack before hightailing it down the trail back to the parking lot. We thought our adventure had ended when we left the trail, but the parking lot was its own kind of adventure. People were parked in every place imaginable, and were lining the road for at least a mile down from the parking lot. There was barely enough room for my truck to get by, and Brian and I were both extremely thankful that we didn’t meet anyone coming uphill at that time of day. We later heard from Jon that it took him over 45 minutes to leave the parking lot because of the traffic, and that his adventure included rescuing at least one car from the ditch.

So with that, we proved that it is possible to have a fun time on an excessively crowded hike in Seattle on a good-weather weekend during prime time for fall colors. We had solitude, mountain views, plenty of wildlife (although no bears sadly), and a great day out. I’m already looking forward to returning to Sahale Arm next year, though perhaps not on a weekend!