Hiking Maple Pass and Rainy Lake in the North Cascades

We choose Maple Pass as our first trail to hike on this visit to the North Cascades.  The Maple Pass trail is known for its great views and accessibility:  difficult enough to provide a challenge, but easy enough for most hikers.

At the trailhead, we find a map of the 2,638 mile (4,245 km) long Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (of which this trail is a small portion), stretching from Canada to Mexico, while passing through 24 national forests, 7 national parks, and 33 wilderness areas.  The trail climbs as high as 13,200 feet (4,023 meters) above sea level in the Sierra Mountains and descends to 140 feet (43 meters) at the Columbia River.  Hikers who make it all the way usually start in April and finish in September.

Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail

Today, we'll just explore the small portion of this trail that heads toward Maple Pass and then down to Rainy Lake.  We park at the Rainy Lake/Maple Pass Trailhead and start up.

Trailhead

Starting up

Initial views of the mountains

The path emerges from the trees and gets steeper as we progress further up the mountain.

Trail on the other side of the gulley

Continuing up

Looking down on Rainy Lake

Continuing around the lake

View from high up

On our return to the trailhead, we admire the flowers that are blooming along the trail; we were too focused on heading up to notice them the first time we passed.

Heading back down

Admiring the vegetation

Passing a waterfall

At the trailhead, we follow the more-level, less-rocky path in the other direction toward Rainy Lake (which we've recently looked down on from the Maple Pass Trail) and arrive at the shore of a beautiful lake with incredibly clear water and tall waterfalls flowing into the lake from the surrounding mountains.

Path to Rainy Lake

A sign at the lake tells us that Rainy Lake was formed in a narrow pocket called a cirque that was chipped and carved out over thousands of years by glacial ice.  Water would seek into cracks, freeze, and then "frost wedge" the rock into pieces later carried away by moving water and ice.  At the bottom of the moving glacier, a moraine (earth dam) was pushed up which now holds the lake water in.

Rainy Lake

A great start to our North Cascades visit.