Lake Ann Fall in the North Cascades

We choose another beautiful hike for the last summer weekend.
 Lake Ann lies on the side of Mt Shuksan near the hanging glaciers Upper & Lower Curtis. The trailhead is near the end of the Mt Baker Hwy.
Artist Point can be seen to the right side of the trail sign.
The trail to Lake Ann is 8.2 miles round trip with about 1,900 ft elevation gain overall. We added a side trail to take us closer to view the glaciers for an overall 9+ mile round trip and a bit more elevation.



The trail starts in the forest and descends into a valley, dropping 900 ft before climbing 1000 ft to Lake Ann. Near the beginning of the trail you can see Mt Shuksan and off to the right, the ridge line we would go over to reach Lake Ann.

 The trail soon enters the Mt Baker Wilderness. There we lots of ripe blueberries along the trail.

 The trail descends 600 ft in about 0.6 of a mile, and enters the headwater basin of Swift Creek. I was happy that there were lots of creeks along this trail. The trail continues to descend another 300 ft through forest and meadows.

 2.3 miles from the trailhead, the trail splits. To the left: Lake Ann To the right: down into the Swift Creek Valley.
Our trail continues through forest and meadows until it reaches a large rocky avalanche field.

 The trail climbs 1000 ft through the rocky path. We saw lots of picas, but the scampered too fast for me to get a photo. With Mt Baker appearing over the ridge, there were lots of opportunities to rest and admire the view.

The last bit of the trail goes up through a meadow to a saddle, Lake Ann is on the other side of this saddle.

From the top of the saddle, looking south to Lake Ann and the Cascade mountains.

A short distance along the trail, there is a path to take you 100 ft down to Lake Ann.

We choose to continue on to a side trail (climber's path) toward Mt Shuksan to get closer to the glacier. We were so close to the mountain I had to use a panorama shot to get in the entire mountain top.

The side trail goes 0.7 miles out into the trees seen in the distance on right side of the large rocky prominence. Somewhere along this trail, we entered North Cascades National Park.

There were great views where the water melting from the glacier flows toward Baker Lake.
As we hiked along this path, we could hear boulders crashing down the side of the mountain.

 Looking through the trees toward Lower Curtis Glacier. The trail did continue higher up, but the trail was very narrow, slanted, contained some boulders, so we decided to stop here.

Another view of Lower Curtis Glacier.

Upper Curtis Glacier

There were lots of waterfalls coming off the glaciers and down the sides of the mountain.

We returned to Lake Ann, hiked to the far side to sit and eat our lunch with this fabulous view.

Lake Ann from the south end.

Heading back to the trailhead. Mt Baker in the distance.












There were still a few wildflowers along the trail today:

Ptarmigan Ridge and Beyond Hike in the North Cascades

We choose a fabulous hike for the last weekend of summer: Ptarmigan Ridge located at the end of the Mt Baker Highway at Artist Point. Many guides list this hike as 4 miles out to Coleman Pinnacle, however on high snow melt years (like this summer) the trail continues out onto the Portals on Mt Baker for an 11 mile round trip hike with about 1800 ft elevation gain in and about 700 ft gain out.

The trail begins on the west end of Artist Point and begins along the Chain Lakes Trail heading west toward Mt Baker and into the Mt Baker Wilderness.

Along this portion of the trail the view extends from Mt Shuksan to the east and Mt Baker to the west:

 1.2 miles along the trail divides, Chain Lakes to the right and Ptarmigan Ridge to the left. The panoramic views continue:

 Here the trail descends into a rocky basin for 200 ft, then regains the elevation on to Ptarmigan Ridge and through some high meadows. Here, looking back along the trail toward Mt Shuksan:

There is a fabulous view point about 3 miles along the trail. To the west: Mt Baker and Coleman Pinnacle, then turning to the east:

 Mt Shuksan










 We continued along the trail crossing one snow field on the way to Coleman Pinnacle.

Panorama view standing where the trail goes around Coleman Pinnacle:

 About 4 miles out from the trailhead, the trail goes around Coleman Pinnacle. You can choose to hike down to a pair of turquoise tarns, scramble up Coleman Pinnacle or continue towards Mt Baker.
 Looking back along the trail as we go around Coleman Pinnacle.

 The trail becomes narrow and rocky as it nears Mt Baker. The large black block looking rocky prominence is The Portals East where our trail will end. The path goes up the east end of Portals east, by passing the large steep snow field on the north side.

 It is a steep rocky path up The Portals East, going higher than the low end of Rainbow Glacier.
Here looking back toward Coleman Pinnacle (Mt Shuksan is on the far right).

 One last snow field to cross near the top of The Portal East.

On top of The Portal East! Great spot to eat lunch and enjoy the views.

Mt Baker looking into Rainbow Glacier.

On the right side The Portals West and The Portals South can be seen.

Panorama view: Mt Shuksan to the east, Cascade Range to the south (we could see Glacier Mountain and Mount Rainier in the distance) and Mt Baker to the west.

 Panorama view: Mt Baker to the west, Cascade Range to the north (looking into Canada) and Mt Shuksan to the east.

 Looking into the crevices on Rainbow Glacier:

 zoom photo of Glacier Mountian

 Hawk flying overhead as we hiked back.














The trail back was heading back toward Mt Shuksan with the sun at our backs.

We did find wildflowers along this hike on the last day of summer: