There many trails starting along the North Cascades Highway. The Pacific Crest Trail crosses at Bridge Creek, heading south. At Rainy Pass, on the north side, the PCT heads up to Cutthroat Pass. On the south side of the highway is the famous Maple Pass – Lake Ann Loop.

The trail is about 7 miles long, climbing from the road past a spur trail to Lake Ann and then heading up to Heather Pass. The views of Lake Ann along the way are super. The trail continues past Heather Pass up to a border with the North Cascades National Park and then turns, ascends a short distance to Maple Pass and the plunges down switch backs back to the parking area.

This August I wanted to go hike but the weather report called for storms in the mountains, however down in the valley, where I live the sky was blue, so I headed up and well…these images show the rest!