North Cascades National Park - Part 2

A friend told us to go to the Cascade Pass trailhead because the view was amazing.   We know we aren't in good enough shape to climb clear to the pass but we were going to do what we could.   We stopped at the Ranger Station in Marblemount and found out the road was closed part-way to the trailhead so we couldn't go.    It had been raining so I'm assuming a mudslide blocked it.  Hwy 20 was closed further east because of a mudslide.  The ranger suggested we hike the Thunder Knob Trail instead. 

This trail is by Diablo Lake so off we went.  It's 3.6 miles round-trip with a 500' elevation gain.  Perfect for us.

You have to go through the campground to get to the trailhead.  To start off you have to go over two log bridges.  Pretty simple bridges.  The second had about 10' of ground washed out from the one end but they had made a couple steps so you could get on and off of it.

The trails started out nice and wide.

There was one long section of switchbacks and one short section.

Finally made it to the top for the view of Diablo Lake.

Nolan saw this snake on the way back down but it moved so fast he didn't have time to get all of it in the photo.  We didn't know what kind it was so we sure the heck wasn't going to try to pick it up.

One of the switch-backs.

This is where a creek, maybe Colonial Creek, comes into Diablo Lake.  See how the color goes from whitish to blue as it mixes?  The Skagit River west of Concrete was a muddy, chocolate milk color.  Between Concrete and Marblemount, it was trying to be blue but there was still a current of brown on the south bank.  East of Marblemount it became blue.  That was heavy rainfall does.

As usually on the West side of the Cascades, everything was covered in moss and other vegetation.

Saw quite a few slugs on the lower part of the trail.

On our trip west we stopped at Gorge Falls.  It goes down twice as far as this photo shows.

Another falls at the parking area.

A hobbit must live here.