Yellow Aster Butte — Sunday, Sep. 28, 2025

tl;dr - Yellow Aster Butte continues to be one of the greatest accessible fall hikes in the PNW, colors are at their peak and berries are bountiful!

We got to the trailhead around 7:15 am, with fleeting views of glorious alpenglow along the way. Lots of cars along the road near the trailhead, most of them parked yesterday for overnighting at the tarns. Our way up the trail was quiet and mostly traffic-free, one backpacker coming down said yesterday was like "downtown Manhattan on the trail and at the tarns"!

The first 1.5 miles is relentless as usual but the views are a great distraction.Vine maples and huckleberry bushes are turning color. There are a few braided trails along the way that can be misleading but the actual fork marking Tomyhoi Lake (right) and Yellow Aster Butte (left) is clearly marked with a post.

The next 1+ mile is a gentle wander through blueberry meadows that are about past peak color, and yet have a mess of juicy blueberries for the picking! There are still clusters of wildflowers in places which makes for an interesting contrast. 

As the trail climbs up again, the color is at its peak .. the classic Yellow Aster Butte slopes looking like someone emptied trucks of Starburst candy. The cloud action today was glorious, every time the sun peeked out, the slopes seemed to light up in shades of yellow, orange and red, with Shuksan and Kulshan in the distance.

This was our first visit to the mountain tarns, which are absolutely gorgeous. The trail down to the lakes is steep but solid, the bigger problem is all the distracting eye candy while traversing down! We wandered around all the little lakes in the area and the base of Tomyhoi Peak. The Border Peaks and Mount Larrabee were visible, Keep Kool Butte is bathed in color.

More clouds were rolling in as we hiked back, this was a perfect day to enjoy the weather before the rain sets in tomorrow.