Suiattle River Trail, Image Lake via Miners Ridge — Monday, Jul. 7, 2025

Finally got up to one of my most-hoped-for destinations and boy did it deliver. I had bugs, a mid-hike bonk, fantastic views, a great campsite, and excellent weather. 

The Suiattle Trail is in surprisingly good shape. Maybe because the road is notorious for washing out and for being difficult (impossible?) for horse trailers to get down, I always assumed the trail at the end of it would be in bad shape. But it's not! 

[the road, incidentally, is decent enough. I took a Lincoln sedan down it - albeit very slowly. As a friend said, "Don't bring your lowrider!" but just about anything else should be fine]

Anyway, the Suiattle Trail is very nice but interminably long. Thankfully the nice new Canyon Creek bridge broke up the 10 miles. It's so freshly-installed it still smells good as you get close to it. 

There is plenty of water along the way, though do note that if you skip refilling at Canyon Creek there are only about three more streams before you hit Miners Ridge trail, and they're kind of far from the bridge.

I took a break at one of these three streams, sitting for a while to enjoy the silence and the leaves overhead with sunlight filtering down. Once I'd fueled up, I headed off for what I assumed was the Miners Ridge trail just around the corner. 

It was not just around the corner. This would be a theme of the rest of the day. (Yes, I had a map, I just didn't want to constantly be looking at it). 

Finally I arrived at the junction and began climbing. The switchbacks start off pretty innocuously. In fact, I began to think I would burn up to the top of this ridge in short order. 

GPW had other plans. There are 50 individual trees down, as well as a nasty mess of trees at one of the first switchbacks that other hikers have avoided by simply cutting the switchback. Nothing is bigger than 25 inches, though some have some complicated binds or other considerations. A certified sawyer crew could do a lot of good work out there for a couple of days.

I counted switchbacks, hoping that would help me get a sense of forward motion. All it did was make me feel like the next one was just around the corner (they're oddly structured, and not evenly spaced, so they were not "just around the corner")

The ascent is divided sort of in half by a junction with the Miners Car trail where there is also a pit toilet and a campsite. It would be a dry site, though there is a water source several hundred feet before you arrive at it. When I got there, I took a break, and was excited to have "just a bit more to go."

But at this point I was getting really tired. I wanted to make it to the summit to have another bigger snack at the lookout. A big mistake. 

I could barely make it two switchbacks without a break. I kept having to stop to catch my breath, drink water and have electrolytes and I just could not get my energy. Finally, just three switchbacks from the top, I had to sit down in the middle of the trail and rest. I had a snack (PB&J tortilla) which I normally love but could barely stomach. After a while (maybe 30 minutes?) I felt better and continued on. That snack made a huge difference; I think I had overestimated my calorie intake in the morning and was just running a big deficit. 

Still, those last few switchbacks are rough. There are two that are twice as long as the ones you've been hiking, and the last one is three times as long, so you're just walking and walking...you've done a switchbacked trail before. You get it. 

I finally did make it to the lookout, though! And those last switchbacks do feature a very cool view of Glacier Peak and the Suiattle Valley. I had a friend once tell me the Suiattle is such a powerful river because it comes careening around the side of Glacier in a spiral and I never quite knew what she meant until I saw it on Monday. It is a wild cut that really does swoop down and around from the east side of the mountain. It's very obvious from the lookout. 

Also obvious from the lookout is the Pomas Fire. There were giant billows of smoke puffing up from a layer of clouds (or maybe other smoke). I had initially thought of camping the next day at Cloudy Pass but I didn't want to camp closer to that fire (especially considering Holden Campground was already closed from on the day I had hiked in) so I decided to just day hike Cloudy the next day. 

It's a mile to Image Lake from the lookout, and mercifully fairly flat, though there is some rock clambering to be done. I have no idea how a horse ever did that section, let alone how one could do it now, but there's a sign guiding stock to use the high trail to get around the lake and camp at Lady Camp. 

For backpackers, the sites at Image Lake are gorgeous, if quite dusty. My tent stakes set in no problem (no rocks!!) and I had a lovely view of the lake basin though not the lake. There's no camping in the lake basin. There appear to be quite a few sites. There was room for another tent near me, plus another site, then a trail led down to the group campsite and some lower sites. If you're coming in and the area looks full, be sure to check those lower sites for other options. 

The next day, I hiked to Cloudy Pass, and then did a short detour to the overlook towards Canyon Lake. More on that in another report. 

(Not a lot to report on my return hike. It was cloudy, and misted just a bit in the morning. I could smell smoke when I woke up, but I think it was the cloud cover spreading the Pomas fire smoke our way.)  

FOUND: one microspike at the Image Lake campground. It was set on a trail leading towards "my" campsite the day I got back from Image Lake. 
A pair of gloves found alongside the Suiattle River Trail. 

If either or both are yours , let me know and we can arrange pickup/dropoff/mailing.