Last minute N. Cascades Weekend Adventure

FAMILY FRIENDLY...

I know it's very last minute, but I've decided to head out for a North Cascades road trip for this weekend that will be a mix of highway driving, Forest Roads, sightseeing and some hiking. This will be a kid friendly trip, as I will have my 2 boys (11 & 8) and possibly the 3-year-old as well…not sure about that yet.

If anyone is interested in tagging along, here's the itinerary I've sketched out. There are 2 main rally points available to meet up. Please respond to this thread and/or text me directly (two-oh-six-818-7848) so I know who to expect. Maybe I’ll ping Dan about making it an event? I intend to go up Slate Peak, so we need to keep the group small if we go that route…the lack of lead time on the planning should sort that out naturally.

ITINERARY...

Friday 7/27

• Leave Lake Forest Park ~2pm – Everett traffic will be a nightmare of course, so probably won’t make it to Darrington until after 4pm, maybe later.
• Rally point 1: Darrington Shell Station (Emens Ave N), 5:30pm
• 6:00pm – head North and turn up Illabot Creek Rd to find a spot to dispersed camp for the night (spotted a couple logging clearings on Google Sat I’m banking on).

Saturday 7/28

• 08:00 – roll out of camp and head up Highway 20
• Rally point 2: 9:00am North Cascades Visitor Center near Newhalem Campground (not to be confused with the one down closer to Marblemount which is the North Cascades Wilderness Center)
• From the visitor center we will head up HWY 20, stopping at places like Diablo Lake Vista, Mazama Store and then up to Slate Peak.
• After hiking up to the radio station, we’ll head back down the mountain. From there we have a few different route options based on time and desires to get over to Tiffany Springs Campground for the night. Options include forest roads all the way, highway driving (or a mix) and an option for dinner in Winthrop if we don’t want to camp cook.

Sunday 7/29

• Sunday morning will be a lazy, big breakfast morning, followed by an easy hike (3mi RT) to nearby Tiffany Lake. Another option is the longer hike up Tiffany Mountain via Freezout Ridge. A third option is sort-of-nearby Black Lake which is a relatively easy 8mi RT hike.
• After hiking and lunch, we will decide if we want to head directly home via HWY20 (probably ~4.5 hrs), detour out through Salmon Meadows/Conconully, or get really crazy and go through Conconully>Chelan>Ardenvoir>Sugarloaf>NF-6700>US-2 to get back to Seattle (probably no way, but hey…I can dream).