Monday, August 22, 2022

Cascade Pass and above Doubtful Lake


We drove up to the end of Cascade Pass Road east of Marblemount to Hike up to Cascade Pass and up towards Sahale Mountain. Overall we hiked 10.7 miles with 3,000 ft gain. We saw lots of wildlife, outstanding views and wildflowers. Definitely a WOW hike! The parking area is at the base of Johannesburg Mountain. On the other side, the trail immediately goes up switchbacks through the forest gaining about 1,400 ft in 2.8 miles. 

We saw plenty of ripe huckleberries to snack on along our hike.
As the trail breaks out of the woods on the way to Cascade Pass, there are wonderful views of peaks to the south: Cascade Peak, the Triplets and Magic Mountain..  Some other hikers spotted some wildlife in the valley and pointed them out to us.

These two mountain goats were carefully watching a bear moving up the valley below them.
The bear was moving fairly quickly. We saw the mountain goats safely cross to the other side and the bear disappear into the woods.

Near Cascade Pass looking to the west and the peaks on the north side of the valley, perhaps Eldorado Peak. 
Getting close to Cascade Pass.
View to the east of Cascade Pass, beautiful!
From Cascade Pass, we headed north up on the trail to Doubtful Lake and Sahale Mountain. We saw a marmot on the trail who seemed to be on high alert.
Looking down below we saw this bear crossing down the east side of Cascade Pass and wondered if it was the same bear we had seen on the west side heading in this direction.
The bear was moving quickly and so disappeared into the trees.

Wide angle view looking at the mountains on the south side of Cascade Pass as we continue up the trail.

We were happy to see wildflowers blooming in the meadows as we made our way up these steep switchbacks.

Heather in bloom and a peak at the top of Sahale Mountain.
As the trail went over the ridge, we had a fabulous view of Sahale Mountain.
Sahale Mountain with Doubtful Lake below, we found a small established boot track that overlooked the lake to take a short break and enjoy this marvelous view!
While we were enjoying our break, I saw a black bear crossing one of the snow fields on the far side of the lake.











This bear was also moving quickly and soon disappeared from view after reaching the end of the snow field.
After our break, we returned to the trail heading up to the ridge that leads to Sahale Mountain on the west side above Doubtful Lake. We loved the mountain views and wildflowers in the meadows.

We saw a grouse a bit off of the trail.
We were told there was a black bear grazing in the meadow below the trail. At first it was hard to spot him amongst the towering views.

We spotted a black hump in the meadow below us. 
Zoom of the bear grazing in the meadow, we watched for some time and the bear never lifted up his head, but continued to graze. 

Wide angle view to the west as we continued up the trail

View overlooking Doubtful Lake, a nice spot to sit, eat lunch and enjoy the views.
Looking up at Sahale Mountain as we began our hike down. We had decided we had a good turn around spot as I was not comfortable going up to Sahale Arm in the steep loose scree, and we were very happy with our hike.

We were told the bear was still in the meadow grazing on our way down.
zoom of the bear continuing to graze

Another view of Sahale Mountain and Doubtful Lake as we continue down the trail.

We spotted two mountain goats at the trail that heads down to Doubtful Lake.
zoom of the mountain goats 
We have had an amazing hike with so many wildlife sightings!
Wide Angle view as we head back to the switchbacks that lead down to Cascade Pass

From Cascade Pass we started down the long trail to the west heading down the the trailhead.
What a wonderful hike and day!
Two of the many butterflies we saw in the meadows.  

some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail:

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

 


 

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