Pacific Crest Trail - Day 182 - Suiattle Pass

Start: Mile 2546.4 - Backcountry campsite
End: Mile 2570.0 - Backcountry campsite

We camped at a junction of a trail that went straight up approximately 4000’ to a fire lookout before traversing a ridge to Suiattle Pass. The PCT gradually proceeded up to Suiattle Pass along the river at the bottom of a tree filled valley. We opted for the ridge.

You really get the sense that the red leaves are warnings that winter is coming and to prepare accordingly.

Glacier Peak hiding in the clouds.

I was very aware when taking these pictures that no camera could remotely capture the incredible light and vastness of the views from the ridge.

Bear prints at the junction to the fire lookout.

Very cool. Many of these fire lookouts are still staffed by volunteers. I’d definitely sign up for a summer shift up here. Apparently the couple who was staffing this one for the summer departed shortly before we arrived - dashing our hopes of an opportunity to potentially finagle a hot cup of coffee.

Unreal. I’ll never forget these views.

Image Lake. The colors popped even on a morning with very flat light.

This basically summarizes my entire ethos.

Glacier Peak. Easily one of the most spectacular mountains we’ve seen on this trek. I had no clue it even existed until about a week before this.

It’s getting chilly! To the point where we took advantage of every ray of sunshine we could find during lunch.

🚦

Views from the crest of Suiattle Pass looking North. Mountains ahead, to the surprise of no one.

We heard a southbound hiker making a ton of racket - yelling and smacking his trekking poles together. When we passed him, he mentioned that he scared a bear off just ahead. We didn’t see the bear, and good on him for scaring it off - that’s what we’ve been asked to do to help prevent human-bear interactions.

This felt like a huge rock arena. No, not that kind of rock.

All the trees had pinecones at the very top.

We wound up hiking into the dark (the days are much much shorter!) to a campsite about 5 miles south of North Cascades National Park where we can catch a 9am shuttle into Stehekin to grab our last resupply!