Purple Pass, Boulder Butte — Saturday, Sep. 10, 2016

Central Cascades > Entiat Mountains/Lake Chelan

This is a bit of a long hike due to the monotonous terrain, but it's an excellent workout with good views at the top. I found myself wishing that the scenery would change just a little bit as we worked our way up the mountain through burned out forest and knee-high undergrowth. The views of the lake aren't bad as you pick your way up, but the summit is the real reason to go here. We went from Purple Pass up to Boulder Butte to get the 360 views and it was well worth it. Keep going past the pass for about .2 miles and you'll see a junction to go to the peak. Very much worth doing if you made it to the pass. There is a trail all the way up, no scrambling needed. The trail is overgrown in sections and very dusty (late summer). I was completely covered in dust when I got down so a swim in the lake was pretty much mandatory. There are also a few trees down across the trail but nothing bad to navigate other than one section that requires you to go off-trail and around (it looked like a rock slide maybe). It was really hot on the way down so we decided to run a good portion of the descent. All the dust and brush, coupled with my really porous trail running shoes made for extremely insane dirt tan lines and really dusty feet (see photo). I would have loved a pair of mini gaiters for this. Long hot hike but worth the views from the butte. Great way to spend a day in Stehekin.