John Guilford's Hikes

Cascade Pass on 2026-09-15

Date: 2026-09-15

Location: Cascade Pass

People: (including myself): Happy Hikers

			  	Alt.	Miles
Trailhead:		8:40	3650	0
Top of switchbacks:	10:30	5100	2.7
Cascade Pass:		10:50	5390	3.5
Leave:			11:15		
Top of switchbacks:	11:50	5100	4.4
Trailhead:		1:20	3650	7

We arrived a bit earlier than we might have due to concerns about parking at the trailhead. It turned out there was plenty of parking, so the early arrival hadn't been needed.

Perhaps the easy parking was in part due to the weather. We didn't get rain, but for the most part we were hiking in the clouds. It was cloudy/foggy/misty and cool (mid-40s).

The trail was muddy in many places, but that said, it was still pretty nice and easy to hike.

The trail initially switchbacks up the side of the valley, gaining 1500' in 2-3/4 miles. Then there is about a mile spent traversing to the pass. The trail crosses a couple rock patches where we heard more than saw pikas.

The weather precluded getting any good views. At times it seemed like we were inside a big ping pong ball. Beyond the nearby trees all we saw was white.

At the pass we stopped for lunch. There we found a cute ground squirrel who was definitely not afraid of people. He kept going around our group, searching for dropped crumbs or trying to raid our lunches.

Sitting for lunch was colder than the climb had been, and I got a bit chilled before heading back down.

Towards the bottom of the switchbacks the clouds started lifting finally giving us a limited view across and down the valley. It still looked pretty cloudy up at the pass.

On the drive out, we stopped at a couple waterfalls for some photos.