Your first glimpse on the Hidden Lake Lookout Cabin in North Cascades Nationwide Park could also be a little bit discouraging. There it sits, far above the path, miles forward of you, perched on what seem like sharp fingers of rock clawing towards the blue sky. To get to the cabin means a roughly four-mile hike from dense pine forests and stream crossings, to lush meadows and drainages full of wildflowers and blueberries in the summertime, after which to reveal granite and regular switchbacks at 6,900 toes in elevation, an elevation acquire of about three,300 toes.
Lastly, the cabin swings into view. You simply have to select your manner by means of a boulder area to get there. Your reward for the lung-busting is a surprising array of a few of the Cascades’ most revered and challenged peaks: Boston, Sahale, Snowking, Glacier, Eldorado, Torment, and Forbidden North Cascade, all lined up as if posing for a gaggle photograph. On particularly clear days, the snowy snout of distant Mt. Rainier might poke its manner into view. Beneath lies the deep blue paradise of Hidden Lake. Not so hidden anymore.
Photograph: Paul Wheeler
You’ll need to method this cabin on sunny, nice days, until you’re snug in tough alpine situations. Snow can stay preserved in gullies surrounding the cabin nicely into the summer season.
The cabin was inbuilt 1932 and used as a fireplace lookout for twenty years earlier than being decommissioned within the early 1950s. For a time, the Skagit Alpine Membership used the cabin as a shelter. One in all their members, Fred Darvill, a person instrumental within the creation of North Cascades Nationwide Park, stored up the cabin for public use but additionally as a type of historic monument. At present it’s operated by the Pals of the Hidden Lake Lookout.
You’ll be able to spend an evening within the cabin for a small donation, someplace within the $15-25 vary. First climbed, first served.
Photograph: Leaf Peterson
Photograph: Jeff Hollett
The Hidden Lake Path, cabin simply barely seen peeking out from the height above. Photograph: Martin Bravenboer
Hidden Lake under the cabin. Photograph: Peter Stevens
