I finally made it up to Buck Creek Pass. This has been on my list for many years. We went Friday afternoon through Sunday to minimize crowds and make for an easier drive home on Highway 2. Minimize is an understatement. There were 2 other parties at the pass both Friday and Saturday nights. I didn't think Buck Creek Pass would be a lonesome place on a sunny holiday weekend.
The trail is 9 1/2 miles with 3200' gained to the pass. It goes up at a steady gently grade. This is an easy one on the knees coming down. The pass itself is forest and meadows with no views. climbing a short way above the pass yields an "in your face" view of Glacier Peak. The deer walked all around with little apparent fear of humans.
On Saturday we hiked up to High Pass. What a neat alpine setting. Triad Lake was below and more mountains around than I could count. From High Pass it's an easy hike up the ridge to Point 7529 and even better views. On the way back we headed up Mount Cleator at 7630'. It's another walk up to great views. On Saturday there was lots of smoke to the northwest but on Sunday it was all gone.
Sunday morning we headed over to Flower Dome for sunrise photos of Glacier Peak. It was stunning when the top of the mountain was bright pink and the lower part was still a dull white. There is plenty of water at the pass and the bugs are nearly gone. The trail is very dusty but otherwise in great shape. It seemed like a leisurely weekend as we covered 31 miles of mostly easy trail. The last mile to High Pass is a little scrambly as tread disappears in the rocks. Still it's not very tough to find the pass from there. There is one small snow field that was easy to cross as it was soft. If icy you could easily go down and around it.
This was a terrific and unexpectedly lonesome weekend. I would highly recommend going on to High Pass or at least up Mt. Cleator. I took 160 photos and will post some as soon as I can go through them. For those who like even more details go here:
Buck Creek Pass
Nice report and great photos. You seem to have picked a better time to go than I did (3 weeks ago). You had less people, less bugs and better weather ... but maybe the flowers I saw were worth it.
I'm making some progress. 30 of 50 photos are now posted at the link above.
Kleet, we had great flowers and horrendus bugs on the other side of Glacier a month ago. The flowers were very nice but it's a relief to slow down and not get eaten alive.
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