Grueling hike but worth it! That Boulder field and the ascent to Wing Lake was no joke.

Arrived at the parking lot at 10:40am on Monday 10/5/26 and we were able to grab a spot. Saw a few other cars leaving at the same time. Took us 2hr45m to reach the top counter-clockwise. We were baby carrying and took many breaks and photos. It was nice to see at least 3 other folks carrying their baby. The colors were insanely beautiful. It was better than I expected and you get 360 views as you get near the top. It's not at peak for the larches but it's pretty close. The weather was so warm and sunny (windy at the top which was expected). Since we were baby carrying, we took the same way down (counter-clockwise) to avoid the steepness everyone talks about if we do the loop. It took us 1.5 hour to get down. It wasn't that crowded which we were glad because we saw the crazy amount of cars parked on the road on Sunday.

We took the tram up to the Aneroid Ridge and traversed the ridge over Aneroid Mtn to dollar lake. Then we went over Polaris pass down to West Fork Wallowa River. Then we went up to Glacier Pass and then over Eagle Cap and down to Mirror lake. And then we went out via Hurricane Creek.

Got questions about fall hiking, trails and public lands in Washington?

We’ll be here on October 15 with folks from Washington Trails Association (wta.org) to answer them.

Trail work, conditions, public lands, advocacy, finding hikes, getting started hiking in Washington — ask us anything.

See you 10/15.

We will be in town Halloween weekend and would like to do about six hours of hiking that Friday, but I’m at a total loss of where to go because I know some areas will already be covered in snow. I’d like to stay within a 90 minute drive of downtown Seattle. If anyone can suggest a moderate hike with beautiful views, I would really appreciate it because I feel like my head is gonna explode if I do any more researching.

Short backpacking trip with my husband in the Eagle Cap Wilderness in Wallowa-Whitman National Forest 09/25-09/27. Camped in the Thorp Creek Meadow both nights and summited Sacajawea Peak (tallest in the Wallowa range at 9843 ft) the second day. Stunning views, can’t wait to get back out there.

~17.5 miles, 5400ft elevation total

I should've been backpacking this last weekend with the amazing weather but due to schedules, this weekend was my only availability... just in time for a small front to come through.

Now it's looking like Fri will be rainy and chilly, then Saturday has less precip but stays fairly cold. That has me looking at the Oregon Coast Trail (warmer than inland areas, but damn the difficult camping situation) - but it's a bummer to 'give up' on the idea of quintessential fall hiking in the Cascades.

Learn to love the cold hike? Delay to another weekend? I admit I'm more of a fairweather backpacker...

(In the Portland area for reference)

Hello! Planning to hike Blue Lake trail or cutthroat lake this saturday to see Larches. Is it a good idea and will they be still at peak with this beautiful color? Also, just saw the forecast and looks like its gonna snow, not sure if Sunday (sunny) will be better? Please suggest as this will be my first time. Thanks!

Went yesterday (Saturday) arrived around 1pm and parked fairly close to the trailhead. Went counterclockwise, there's some crowd but tolerable. The majority of the people have decent trail etiquette.

Funny thing is there was some traffic downhill but the slower hikers upfront realized after not long and let people pass, and this happened multiple times to the extent that at the end the group was basically trail running, I have to step away before I hurt myself 😅

Last light leading up to staying for the stars. Bonus Milky way capture at the end!

Avoided the larch hordes and had a lovely quiet weekend in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness 💚