North Fork Sauk River — Thursday, Jun. 24, 2010

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

First off, it took 45 minutes longer to get to the trail head than I expected. It's not a big deal, but I was unaware that the Mountain Trail Loop turns into a hard-packed road and the speed limit drops to 25. So the drive from Snohomish that had been planned at 90 minutes was then 135. Now I know! The hike itself was lovely. Lots of wildflowers in bloom in colors of white, pink, and purple. Someday I'll learn all the names. The river crossing was fine and we helped the kidlets across. The mossy rocks are really beautiful as are the trees. We hiked just over two miles in and turned around. It took around 3 hours at our snail's pace. A beautiful hike, but if I weren't camping I don't know if I would make the drive again.