If you are looking for a secluded swimmable mountain lake, this hike is for you!

Road + Trailhead

The Twisp River road is a gorgeous drive, once the pavement ends, the gravel is in mighty fine shape. Minor washboard and no major potholes make for fast and smooth sailing that can be undertaken by any car.

We were a little misdirected by our Google map and continued to the end of the road. We parked in a shaded parking space at the road closure gate, there was room for 4-5 cars there.  But there is also a larger lot with a restroom and the trailhead if you take the left fork before the road end.

Trail

The trail was straightforward to navigate.

The first 3 miles, in the burn zone, can be a little brushy, but nothing above waist height, this might change as the growing season continues.

None of the water crossings is anything to worry about. Keeping your feet dry is easy, and no fording is required. We easily hopped across on some rocks and logs at what I would guess to be the horse ford.

The trip description mentions that the trail deteriorates after you cross North Lake Creek, but I did not find it so. It's lovely and wide and meanders through a lovely forest.

Lake

The lake is lovely and clear. There were many trout swimming and jumping about. While we passed 3-4 parties on the way in, we had the lake mostly to ourselves. We saw another party departing as we were leaving, I'm not sure where they were hiding, it wasn't within eyeshot or earshot of our little pebbled beach, of which there were a few. It seemed like we had our private mountain oasis, and some of our party went for a little swim.

Return

Uneventful. We passed two parties headed in for an overnight.

The North Lake trail is one of several trails accessed from the trailhead at the end of the Twisp River Road.  The road is paved part way and then newly graveled the rest of the way, and is smooth driving all the way to the trailhead.  We were the only car at the trailhead, and we saw nobody else on the trail all day.  When we got back to our car, another car was there but that party of two had headed up to Twisp Pass.  Judging from the trail register, the North Lake trail sees few visitors.

The trail itself consists of three quite distinct sections.  It starts off switch-backing gently upward through an open, dry forest of charred trunks.  The single-track trail bed is soft underfoot and the only hazards are the numerous pine and fir cones littering the trail from the scattered living trees.  A trail crew has been through and cut numerous downed logs which had obstructed the trail when we were here in June. (Thank you!)  However, two new snags have fallen over the trail more recently in the section between the intersection with the Twisp River trail and where the trail swings north to head up the North Creek Valley.  These are too large to clamber over and have to be detoured around.  The only other obstacles on this part of the trail are the overhanging branches of the trailside bushes, which have encroached over the trail and must be pushed aside.  This is easily done, but results in wet pants on a wet morning.

The second section of the trail side-hills steadily up the west slope of the North Creek Valley.  This section contains the steepest parts of the climb and also the rockiest trail bed.  Most of this section travels through the burned forest with its burgeoning undergrowth of bushes, young trees and flowers.  These have overgrown the trail in many places, so pushing through the undergrowth becomes the norm.  Nevertheless, the trail is never hard to follow and all of the spring’s deadfalls have been cut away.  Views down to North Creek and up along Abernathy Ridge to the east keep things interesting.  The only water still available on this exposed and potentially hot section is from one creek about half way along. The trail enters the unburned forest not far below the crossing of North Creek.  Views disappear, but so does the overhanging trailside brush and the rocky trail bed.

The third section of the trail starts after the ford of North Creek and goes all the way to the lake.  The ford was easy to cross via rock-hopping, in spite of recent heavy rains (see photo).  Once on the other side of the creek, the trail takes on a different character altogether.  After a short, rocky section resembling an old stream bed (not the sharp, angular, rock-slide debris characterizing the lower trail), the trail bed becomes soft forest duff.  This section seems to be an old road bed and is wide and gently graded.  It goes through dense spruce and hemlock forest in a broad valley.  The dense forest canopy offers no long views and permits little light to filter down.    Although hiking through the forest was very pleasant, we were happy when limited views finally opened up as we passed the marshy section and pond, just before reaching the lake.

Trail crews have taken chain saws to a number of very large, downed trees along the forested section of the trail.  Many of these cuts seem very recent.  We were grateful for this work and for all of the obvious trail improvements along this section. 

 The lake itself is truly lovely.  We hiked to the south end and explored the little tarn above and just south of the lake, lying at the base of soaring Gilbert Mountain and its rocky ridge (see photo).  The view north over the lake to Abernathy Ridge was lovely, as well (photo).  This beautiful, open, sub-alpine cirque is a great reward for the long walk in.  Larches dominate around the south end of the lake and march up the north-facing slopes of Gilbert Mountain and its flanking ridges (see photo).  All the larches are still fully green, but I expect that the basin will be gorgeous in a month or so when the larches are golden. 

Note: We saw fish jumping in the lake, but a sign at the trailhead said the lake is closed to fishing. 

An excellent hike that is now entirely doable if you don't mind a lot of obstacles. There are two major water crossings. The first one you could do with waterproof shoes. The second is thigh high, and we only felt safe crossing about 70 yards upriver of the trail. Fortunately we brought water sandals and poles and managed both crossings safely. (I recommend crossing at the widest part of the river, which you can find by walking up river. There is a camp site right near the crossing and from there you can follow a small trail to this wider part).

Before the first water crossing, the first mile and a half are pretty overgrown with brush and branches, but the trail is easy to follow and the brush isn't too bothersome. After the second water crossing (around mile 3) there are a LOT of blowdowns. Mostly not too difficult to climb over or go around but they will slow you down.

The last mile of the trail is mostly covered in snow still. It's easy to walk on, but make sure you have a navigation device in case you lose the trail. Waterproof shoes would also be useful for this very wet part of the trail.

In summary, this hike has it all: bears, snakes, deep water crossings, tons of blow downs, snow and a beautiful lake at the end! It was a great day, with some fun challenges and fantastic views.

This little-used trail takes you up to the high country on the northeast slope of the Twisp River Valley. According to the trail description, the Crescent fire burned through here in 2018.  This has had several consequences for the trail.  Most of the forest was severely burned, and the loss of forest cover opened up the hillsides for bushes and flowers, making this a good choice for a spring wildflower hike.  The standing dead trees make a stark contrast with the verdant green understory.  Lack of tree cover also means more warm spring sunshine and much better long-distance views across to the Sawtooth Range and up both sides of the North Creek valley.  For all of those reasons, we chose this for a short day-hike.  However, the burned forest also means lot of dead-fall over the trail and, of course, loss of the beautiful, healthy forest that once graced these hills.  For all the benefits of fire, we are always saddened by its destruction.

We were the only people on the trail all day, which was wonderful.  I doubt that this trail gets a lot of use even in summer, judging from the condition of the trail.  It starts off well as it zig-zaggs up through patches of living and burnt forest until it rounds the bend into the North Lake valley.  There are no obstacles on the lower trail other than crowding berry bushes and high densities of pine and fir cones littering the trail.  Grasses sprouting up in the trail bed might obscure the trail later in the season if foot traffic doesn’t suppress them, but the trail is still easy to follow.  The high ridges and peaks of the Twisp River Valley soar on all sides. 

Once the trail starts up the North Creek Valley, the views get better and better, but the trail gets worse and worse.  It is littered with branches and twigs, and bushes often crowd the trail.   Many logs and dead trees have fallen across the trail, ranging from massive logs to tangles of branches to small trunks easily stepped over.  I counted 18 logs/trees across the trail.  About a half dozen of these were major obstacles that required deft bushwhacking to negotiate by either crawling under, clambering over or finding a way around through the brushy ground cover (see photo). 

The most difficult obstruction along the trail was crossing a smaller cascade about 2 miles in from the trailhead.  The recent rains combined with snowmelt have swollen all the streams, and this was no exception.  We took some time to gather small logs and branches to place across the stream, giving us and our dog a safer crossing.  Hopefully, this ad hoc ford will help future hikers as well.

After the stream crossing, the trail continued up the valley through patches of burned forest with many downed logs and trees, and then through green forest.  The living forest was noticeably cooler and soon snow patches appeared beside the trail.  The green verges of the trail hosted large patches of blooming glacier lilies and the views up the east side of the valley as well as back over the Twisp River valley were beautiful (see photo).   

About a half mile before we reached the ford of North Creek, the trail became fully snow-covered (see photo).  We used our GPS to stay on the trail, and occasionally we could see melted-out traces of footprints from a previous hiker.  The soft snow surface revealed fresh tracks of a large moose that had come down the trail not long before we arrived (the tracks were still filling with snowmelt), and later on, fresh coyote tracks going uphill joined the trail for a while. 

When we reached the ford of North Creek we found the creek running very high with no possibility of getting across (see photo).  The depth of the creek and velocity of the water would have made any attempt at crossing dangerous and impossible for our dog.  This had been our planned turn-around point so we headed a short way back down the trail and then detoured up the west slope into a rock slide/avalanche track where exposed grey boulders offered a place in the sun for a lunch break. 

 Overall, this was a good choice for a spring hike.  The open forest let in lots of light and enabled us to see the beautiful, snowy, high ridges and mountains around the Twisp and North creek Valleys.  Snow on the peaks and ridges contrasted wonderfully with the rich greens of the lower slopes.  The understory was green and verdant, and some flowers were blooming, notably the glacier lilies higher up.  However, most flowers had not yet bloomed so the flowers here have not reached their peak here. 

We will come back in fall, when water levels should be low, and see if we can get all the way to the lake.  The lower reaches of this trail suggest that the upper trail should be well worth the effort.

Stats: 14 miles, 4000' gain, 8:20 on trail.

I started out in below freezing temp at 8:30a from the Twisp River road (where it crosses North Creek). There were a few blowdowns on the main trail. The first mile or so is in the 2018 burn zone which is fascinating with new views not available before. Before the North creek crossing, the trail is out of the burn and into the forest. I decided to take a right at the fork to Abernathy pass which was a mistake (and my GaiaGPS map doesn't even show the Cedar Creek Trail connecting to the N. Lake Trail anymore). After getting through one bad blow down, I turned around when I saw a stretch of continuous blow downs (which surely would have shredded my puffy jacket). Besides there weren’t any Larches up that way - and I'm was on a Larch March. I continued towards North Lake, past the big erratic, meadow and tarn. I took a right at the Jolly Mine fork in order to get some more elevation. This spur trail is in rough shapebut you can tell that it was once a very nice trail. There are some very nice viewpoints along the way looking down at the emerald colored North Lake and of course Larches! I stopped for lunch by the Jolly Mines and then decided to head for a col due west at 7200' which I had done before with Bandit, the crazy dog. The talus was steep but I did make it to the col and looked over at the ground that I covered on yesterday's hike (Copper Pass/Stiletto Lake). On the way back down, I took a small fall backwards onto my butt. I laughed because I foresaw this happening and moved my phone from my back pocket to my shirt pocket for the steep descent. The Larches in this upper basin were slightly past peak but still very nice. I got back to the Jolly spur and made good time the rest of the way back to the van (at 5:37p). I didn't see anyone else on the trail all day.