The Long Hike Up to Cascade Pass and The Long Drive After

We woke up at about 7:45 am and started to get everyone dressed in warm layers and to pack everyone’s backpack for another epic hike. It turned out that we were glad that we didn’t find room at the FCFS campground inside the national park. This spot was actually a really cool camping spot - it was nice to hear the waterfall all night long, and it was so quiet and remote. We also didn’t have to drive nearly as long to get to the trailhead. We left a little after 9am, and it was probably only about 45 min or so to drive up to the parking lot. It wasn’t actually that far distance-wise, but it was a gravel road that was only one lane in a lot places and with a lot of switchbacks. There were vault toilets up at the parking lot, so we told everyone they had better use them because we had a 7.4 mile hike planned, with no bathrooms along the way. 

In the trailhead parking lot

Even the view from the parking lot was pretty great. Elevation: 3640ft.

Guess who found something to climb on in the parking lot even before the hike began...

I always have to read all the signs!

Trail map - 1744 ft in elevation gain and about 30 switchbacks!

It was a steep hike up, with lots of switchbacks, but also with lots of great scenery along the way.

  

Snack break!

 

Hidden cascade that Joey found by climbing over some boulders at one of the switchbacks

There were clouds rolling past, obstructing the full views of the surrounding peaks, but it was still pretty amazing to look out over the mountains and trees and cascades. We were hoping and praying the skies would be clear when we finally reached our summit at Cascade Pass!

Some of the highlights along the way were seeing hoary marmots and pikas scampering among the rocks. We also were able to pick and eat handfuls of mountain blueberries - SO YUMMY!

One of the hoary marmots we saw

The little pikas were super cute and very squeaky!

Many, many, many, many hikers passed us by along the way, but we persisted and reached the top! The kids got lots of compliments and encouragement by fellow hikers along the way, many who were impressed to see them all hiking and all carrying their own backpacks at such a young age. Finally, after about a little over 3 hours of hiking, we reached the top! It was a great spot to stop and have lunch, and we were fortunate enough to have clear views of the mountains. Mountain views are the BEST views!

We sat and ate lunch at the top. This little guy tried really hard to get some of our food!

We had been fairly warm, and some of the kids even stripped down to just a t-shirt, while hiking up. But sitting at the pass and eating lunch made us all a little chilly. It was more exposed and windy, and sitting still made us all cold. So we decided it was time to head back down. It started to get cloudier and cloudier and I was so grateful we had been at the top when it was clear this time!

Sudden cloudiness descended on the way down - glad it didn't happen before we got to the top!

There was also a really cool moment where we all came around a corner and Joe suddenly said, “Look to the left!” and there was a deer RIGHT THERE! It was so close, I couldn’t believe it hadn’t gotten startled and ran away with all the noise we were all making. We stopped and watched it for a few minutes as it was eating - so cool to see this animal so close in the wild!

Up until then we had done a really great job of all sticking together, with nobody getting too far ahead or falling too far behind. But Joey and Lily really really were needing to use the bathroom, so they ended up going on ahead to get back to the parking lot restrooms first. It was about 4:30pm when everyone had finally reached the bottom - so it took us about another 3 hours to get back down, and then it was time to say goodbye to North Cascades National Park.

Our next goal was to reach Glacier National Park, which was about an 11 hour drive. We didn’t have any reservations or plans on where to stay the night, other than to drive for as long as Joe wanted to tonight, and then to finish the drive tomorrow, where we hoped to secure a first-come-first-serve campsite within the park. Our mileage was at 149927 when we pulled out of the parking lot at about 4:45pm.

Our first stop was at about 8:30pm when we stopped to get gas. We had all been eating along the way, so we really didn’t do a full “dinner” stop. Gas here was $3.11 and we filled up, made everyone use the bathroom, and then rearranged everyone into comfortable sleeping clothes and sleeping positions while Dad got some caffeinated soda and planned to drive for several more hours. Lily insisted dad pull out her loose tooth, which had been hanging on precariously the entire journey, and he barely touched it and it fell out. She was so excited to have lost a tooth on the trip! But we told her the tooth fairy probably would wait until we were at home to leave something under her pillow! We had already made it about 155 miles since we left the North Cascades National Park, but still had a long way to go to get to Glacier. By about 10pm I was feeling pretty sleepy, and Joe said he was feeling good and that I should go back and lay down and get some sleep while he kept driving. So I did.

When I woke up and checked the clock I was surprised to find out that Joe ended up driving almost all night! He said he crossed into Idaho at about midnight and entered Montana at about 1:15am (although there was a time zone crossing, so the local time was 2:15am). He stopped at about 3 am in a town with a Catholic church, thinking he would sleep there and we could wake up and go to mass and continue driving, but was disappointed to find out that they didn’t have mass until 12:30pm! He was worried we wouldn’t get our FCFS campsite if we waited that long, and knew that he wouldn’t be able to wake up early enough to drive to an early mass at another church, so unbelievably decided to keep driving a couple more hours until finally stopping at 5am in Ronan, MT, parked next to Sacred Hearth Catholic Church. Joe is the best driver. Even though I keep offering to drive, he insists on driving the whole time. I don’t mind, because I really don’t like driving anyway, plus he doesn’t like being the passenger, so it works out. I feel like the lucky one though!

Total miles traveled today: 540
Total miles travled on this trip: 4365