Perry Creek — Saturday, May. 27, 2000

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

This is one gorgeous trail! One book described it as following a creek, which it does. But I found this to be more of a gorge trail. After about a quarter mile into the trail the views of the surrounding peaks as well as Big Four are fantastic and continue up to the falls. And I passed countless waterfalls on both sides of the creek. Perry Creek Falls (at 2 miles) is pretty spectacular. In all, I did this roundtrip in just over two hours. On the drive up the forest road, bypass the unsigned turnoff and continue on the main road to the end. Although the road gets narrow near the trailhead, continue towards the dead end as there is space to turn around (as long as people obey the ""no parking"" signs). On the trail there are several snow fields and creeks to cross. Although easy and not necessarily dangerous, the last snowfield before the falls does run out into Perry Creek. But if you slip, take comfort in the fact that you'd have a long way to slide before reaching the creek. By the way, a guy I passed on the trail said there was constant snow beyond the falls up to Mount Forgotten.