Exploring the Mountain Loop Highway

Looking for a new adventure, we found a series of hikes that we hadn't done before.  Woo-hoo!

North of Seattle and east of Everett, we found the southern section of the Mountain Loop highway

Here's the map of the Mountain Loop Highway, heading east into the Cascades, full of trails and campgrounds

First day, we chose this near and somewhat easy hike

Unfortunately, the big cedars like this one had been chopped down long before we got to the planet

Quite a rooty trail, hard on the legs.

Heather Lake

Maybe Mount Pilchuck up there in the smoky haze

Another view of the lake and the haze

Next day, we drove to the end of the paved road to try something a little more ambitious

This used to be a railroad, then a road, now a rails to trails

Lovely, quiet, and no other people around

Nice walking surface,  plus the sound of the nearby river, the south fork of the Sauk

Many washouts, requiring trails like this to go around them

The river and the smoky mountains

The trail seemed to end at the river, so we had to make our way across a couple of channels over to the partial bridge

A  present day homemade sign at five miles in

A one hundred plus year old sign

The old ghost town still has a few standing structures

We walked through the town and headed up the Poodle Dog Pass trail

It was quite pretty and we had it all to ourselves

Entering the Henry M. Jackson wilderness

Getting up to the high country

We were hoping to get above the haze, but we didn't

Stopped at this pretty stream near the pass for lunch.  While we ate our food, the bugs ate us.

As we returned, the smoke seemed to get thicker

Back to the Flower Bower, our very unusual airbnb rental. 

Hiking stats:

Heather Lake=5 miles round trip, 1000' elevation gain
Monte Crisco and Poodle Dog Pass trail=13 miles round trip, 1500' elevation

We hope to return and explore more of this area in the future.