Weekend in North Cascades National Park (WA)

For our last National Park adventure of 2023, we headed up 5 hours to North Cascades National Park in Washington. Early October is the start of off-season, but was an absolutely spectacular time to visit. The fall colors were vivid, and the weather was still warm, yet crisp. We made it just in time before winter approached.

CAMPING

Visiting during off-season had its perks in terms of scenery, but a little more challenging in regards to accommodations. Park facilities (including the visitor center) are only open late May - late September. Many of the large campgrounds were closed, and the park is in a pretty remote area with no big towns nearby. Regardless of time of year, you'll definitely need to bring your own food and be okay with camping.

There were still a few first-come, first-serve campgrounds open on our trip. We stayed around (but not in) the Goodell Creek Campground area. This was about 35 miles from the Sahale Arm, and about 38 miles from Rainy Pass. Both drives took us about an hour, but this made a good spot to be in between those areas and close to Diablo and Ross Lakes. It also made for easy access to North Cascades Highway.

HIKES / VIEWPOINTS

Unlike a lot of the other National Parks we've visited, this one is mostly composed of long, strenuous hikes. This made it a little more difficult to tackle as just a weekend trip, and also harder on my body at 22 weeks pregnant. We had to be choosy about our trails since we knew we'd only be able to fit in so many in. We generally like to go on the 'bang for your buck' hikes, so that we can see as many different points of interest as possible with moderate effort. To diversity our views, we also visited the neighboring Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest along North Cascade Highway SR 20.

↟ Doubtful Lake via Cascade Pass (10 miles) - At 3,100 feet elevation gain, this was no easy task. We started on the Cascade Pass trailhead and hiked up to Doubtful Lake. Cascade Pass starts out with series of 31 switchbacks in the woods. It was rather exhausting, but once you make it out, you're greeted with expansive views of peaks and glaciers. It was one of those trails that makes you feel engulfed by the ginormous landscape.

The Cascade Pass trail is 7 miles, and we tacked on another 3 to visit Doubtful Lake. The view was absolutely breathtaking. It was so cool being able to look down over this large glimmering teal lake, surrounded by red, orange, and yellow foliage. The 360 view from up here is undoubtably the BEST view we've seen in our entire lives. You can hike to Sahale Arm if you want to go an extra mile, but we were more than satisfied with the views here. This was definitely the hardest hike we've done to date, and our legs were dead at the end. You'll want to get to the parking area early, as it fills up fast! Plus, this adventure took up our entire Saturday, so you'll want to give yourself plenty of time to enjoy the hike.

↟Diablo Lake Overlook - right off the North Cascades Highway, you can get a gorgeous view of Diablo Lake. This spot does draw large crowds since there's no hiking required. The lake is surrounded by forested mountains and is incredibly mesmerizing. The color of the water changes depending on the time of day you visit. During peak season, boat tours are offered on the lake (we didn't get to do this).

↟ Rainy Lake (2 miles) - the next two hikes are outside of the National Park, located along SR 20. This was a super easy hike that's even wheelchair accessible. The paved walkway made for the perfect recovery hike on Sunday. The water was really clear with beautiful mountain scenery.

↟ Lake Ann (3.5 miles) - there are a couple ways to view Lake Ann, and we went for the shorter route. The view here was pretty similar to Rainy Lake, but we loved the journey to it. I'm a sucker for walking through pretty trees.

FYI, the Rainy Pass area was crowded. There are a lot of popular trailheads that stem from here. We were not expecting cars to be parked for miles & miles along the highway. Somehow we got lucky and were able to park in the Rainy Pass Picnic lot. Definitely get here early as well!

North Cascades National Park is so underrated and quite the gem. This is probably one of our favorite parks we've visited so far. We'd love to go back for a longer visit to tackle more strenuous hikes or go backpacking. Maple Pass trail (SR 20) is high on our list!

AllTrails List

Highlight Reel

TRIP BREAKDOWN

LENGTH OF STAY: 2 DAYS

📍 Diablo, WA

💲 This National Park is FREE

⛺ $0 (dispersed, and parking lot)

⛽ 🍽️ : variable