[Ancient Ambler]

Attempting to tune up for a longer hike later this week, took off for the Upper Dungeness TH and a trip into Deception Basin cross-country from the Heather Creek Trail. Reached the TH mid afternoon Friday. The first minor challenge is the lashed-together fix to the collapsed log bridge about 1/2 mile downstream from Camp Handy. Shouldn't be a problem for most, but if you're loaded up like Lawnchair Al, specialist in ultra-heavy hiking, you can snag whatever you've got tied to the top of your pack on the hand ropes that cross the bridge diagonally at a dicey location.

Lawnchair Al, ultra heavy specialist

Dungeness River crossing

About 3/10 of a mile past the turnoff to Camp Handy, the unmarked Heather Creek trail heads off to the right from the Upper Dungeness Trail. A sign on a tree indicates Marmot Pass is to the left. Heather Creek trail is officially unmaintained, but this year blowdowns have been cleared all the way out to the crossing of the Dungeness, where all maintenance definitely ends. If you have followed the trail to the point where it appears that there is nothing but a jumble of blowdowns along the river bank blocking further progress, you will see an 18-inch diameter tree spanning the river with evidence that some have used it to cross. If you enjoy tightrope walking with a heavy pack on your back, you could try crossing on this tree like someone who is old enough to know better did. (The trail continues uphill from the far end of this tree).

Tight-rope crossing

On the other hand, if you have a modicum of sense, you'll look upriver about a hundred yards where a red flag is tied onto a branch of a somewhat better crossing tree. You can work your way along the bank to it without much trouble, but once you cross you'll have to walk back downriver 100 yards on the other side to intercept the trail, which takes off uphill to the west.

A better choice

A third option is to ford the river. Head back down the trail from the first (18 inch) log crossing and take the first side trail ot the left down to the river, turn left, and walk along the shore and you'll see a trail going up the bank on the opposite side of the river. Once on the other side of the Dungeness, the Heather Creek trails wends its way upward through many acres of forest carpeted in moss. Leaving the Dungeness behind, the trail stays high on the hillside north of Heather Creek and works its way west. The trail becomes very difficult to follow through overgrown slide alder thickets in avalanche gullies where footing is complicated by critter holes in the path concealed by dense vegatation that has not been trimmed for years. In the final mile before the trail ends there are dozens of blowdowns across the trail. You'll know you've reached the end of the trail when you see government signs about entering the park and "No Hunting", after which the trail turns abruptly down toward Heather Creek and ends at a small tentsite in the trees next to the creek. (Actually, the park boundary is on the south side of Heather Creek, not where the signs say it is). You might think there would be more appealing campsites in the open avalanche meadows just upstream from here, but pickings are slim as the ground is riddled with critter holes and quite uneven and slide alder complicates access to water. There is an abandoned log cabin site across Heather Creek that has flat ground, but crossing the rushing creek is dicey and the site is marred by garbage and debris from the cabin. Saturday morning broke bright and cool, and we took some time to survey our options. From our campsite at about 4240 ft elevation, our goal was to ascend the drainage leading to the 6480 ft pass (call it Fricaba Pass) between Hal Foss Peak (7179 ft) and Mount Fricaba (7139 ft). From Fricaba Pass, the drainage goes east and then turns south, dropping rapidly to the avalanche meadow beside our Heather Creek campsite. USGS maps don't show it, but there is a significant creek coursing down this drainage in a narrow gulley that is just barely visible on 1:24K scale maps. There is a slope well east of the gulley that has been swept free of trees by avalanches, and just to the east of this avalanche slope there is a ridge with some cliff bands that drops down to the camp site. We opted for a route going straight up the avalanche slope, staying well east of the creek draining Fricaba basin and somewhat west of the ridge and its cliff bands.

Heather Creek Basin route start

The first part of this trek is a lot steeper than the photo suggests, and is complicated by numerous critter holes, loose rock, and vegetation-obscured footing. An unexpected bonus on this south-facing slope was an abundance of sweet mountain strawberries that appreciably slowed progress.

Mountain strawberries north of Heather Creek basin

Once the first steep slope is topped, you'll get a better view of what lies ahead. We decided to stay well east of the creek and to sidehill upward toward the grassy meadows.

Middle portion of route

One big surprise in the basin as we gained elevation was the number of waterfalls coming off the cliffbands on the west side of the drainage.

Fricaba basin waterfall, Hal Foss Peak

Equally surprising was the wildflower display.

On route to Fricaba Pass

Harebells on route to Fricaba Pass

On route to Fricaba Pass

On route to Fricaba Pass

Paintbrush and waterfall, Fricaba Basin

Upper Fricaba Basin turned out to be a verdant, appealing place and showed basically no signs of man. There are no boot paths or firepits here, no garbage or other debris.

Hal Foss Pk, Fricaba Pass, Fricaba

Fricaba Basin

As the drainage turned toward the west, we stayed north of the creek and the cliffs, then crossed the creek after the terrain to the south became more moderate and wended our way through rocks into the more desolate terrain at the pass itself. From Fricaba Pass, the view of Deception Basin was spectactular. There were spectular views to the east of Constance and Warrior, but photos that way were tough at 10AM due to morning sun.

Mt. Deception from Fricaba Pass

Upper Deception Basin from Fricaba Pass

From Fricaba Pass we made our way easily down into Deception Basin and roamed around, having already decided that we would take the boot path up to Deception Pass, visible on the scree ridge on the north side of Deception Basin. There appeared to be no one else in all of Deception Basin.

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Deception Pass from Deception Basin

Wildflowers were also on display in Deception Basin:

Deception Basin

Tow-headed babies, Deception Basin

Phlox, Deception Basin

Reaching Deception Pass (ca. 6640 ft) many more extraordinary views were available.

Upper and Lower Royal Basin from Deception Pass

Mt. Mystery and Lake Mystery from Deception Pass

Constance, Inner Constance, Fricaba Pass from Deception Pass

Upper Deception Basin from Deception Pass

Surprise Basin from Deception Pass

Could have stayed a lot longer, but it was noon and time to start heading back to camp, given that clouds were massing to the south and it looked like the weather was taking a turn for the worse. On the way back we enjoyed views of Deception and Mystery from tarns in upper Deception Basin.

Mt. Deception from tarn, upper Deception Pass

Mt. Mystery from tarn, upper Deception Basin

Back at Fricaba Pass, we enjoyed some views of the Olympic Peaks to the east before starting the grueling downclimb to Heather Creek.

Constance, Inner Constance from Fricaba Pass

Cloudy Peak, Warrior, Constance from Fricaba Pass

[reststep]

Beautiful country. Thanks for the report and pictures. That is an interesting route to Deception Basin. I like it. I tried to get there once by following Deception Creek up but did not make it. I made it to the spot below below Gunsight Pass where 2 branches of Deception Creek come together.

[ScottM]

Very nice. I always like your trip reports because you like to do the kind of trips I like to do (or is it, I like to do the kind of trips you like to do). It looks like a return trip down the Royal Basin trail would make a pretty nice loop trip.

[Magellan]

Abandoned, remote, lonely. I like.

[silence]

EXCELLENT!! Awesome views of some rarely seen backcountry. Thanks for the great TR and pix.

[Phil]

Sorry for the late reply to this one ...dunno how I missed it. But anyway wow what a hike! AA we think alike, it seems. I'm pooring over maps for dayhike ideas and jotted down the route up Heather and then over Del Monte ridge to Constance pass and back down Dungeness. Then check this site and behold here's your report on the critical first part of that route. How long did it take you to go from your campsite to the open terrain of Fricaba pass? From reading your report seemed like just 2-3 hours.

[Ancient Ambler]

Phil: We took our time, with a number of photo breaks, so it was a little over 2 hours from our camp at the end of the Heather Creek trail to get to Fricaba Pass. Are you thinking of entering Deception Basin via Heather Creek/Fricaba Pass, descending Deception Creek a bit and then heading up to Gunsight Pass, and then exiting via Del Monte and Constance Pass back to the Dungeness TH, all in one day? That's what I'd call a long day. As for the Heather Creek to Deception Basin route, I'd been considering it for a few years, looking at the route from other mountains in the area. Then earlier this summer in a post here EThorson mentioned it as something he was thinking of doing, so that got me off the dime. He mentioned a couple of other places he was considering going that I have also been thinking about-- nwhikers.net definitely appeals to like-minded hikers.

[Phil]