A great view hike in the Wild Sky Wilderness & the Henry M Jackson Wilderness. The trailhead is 20 miles up Forest Service Roads north of Skykomish off of Hwy 2. The hike is 14. 4 miles round trip with about 3,700 ft of total elevation gain. Most of the wildflowers were well passed bloom, but the blueberries and blue huckleberries were ripe and the bushes went along the trail for miles!
The trail starts in the forest and soon crosses the North Fork of the Skykomish River on a nice bridge.
Along the the top of West Cady Ridge, the trees begin to thin, and the surrounding mountains begin to appear.
Monte Cristo Peaks
Glacier Peak
and to the south, the peaks in the Enchantments
For the next two miles, the trail goes up and down along the ridge, gaining another 750 ft, and enters the Henry M Jackson Wilderness.
We continued to have great views, eating berries all along the trail
If you stay on the West Cady Ridge Trail, it will join the Pacific Crest Trail in less than a mile between Saddle Gap and Cady Pass.
The mountains surrounded us all as far as we could see.
My siblings atop of Benchmark Mountain.
From Benchmark Mountain we had 360* views, the only man made object we could see was the trail, no evidence of clear cutting.
Panorama from Benchmark Mountain to the north: Monte Cristo Mountains, Mt Baker, Glacier Peak
Glacier Peak
We headed back down off of Benchmark Mountain,
to West Cady Ridge, this time hiking into the views!
Mt Rainier far to the south
one of the butterflies and some of the wildflowers and plants we saw along the trail today:
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