[jaysway]

My fiancé and I spent three days exploring Ross Lake for the first time over the long weekend. I had permits for nights at Cat Island, Desolation Camp, and Hozomeen Lake and a motor boat rental from the Ross Lake Resort. As the trip approached the forecast started looking worse on Sunday/Monday, so on Friday morning I was fortunate enough to arrive at the WIC and switch around my dates so that our campsites were now Desolation Camp, Cat Island, and Hozomeen Lake for Friday-Sunday nights, respectively. Someone must have cancelled their stay at Desolation Camp on Friday because I considered making this switch earlier in the week on recreation.gov but was not able to, so thank you to whoever cancelled . Friday, 7/1

We hiked down from the Ross Lake Dam trailhead to the shore of Ross Lake and got a ride across to the resort. Picking up our motor boat rental was easy and quick. Ross Lake Resort seems like a real gem, I can see why it is so difficult to book a stay there! We got on our way to the Desolation Peak dock. It was a gorgeous day, warm with little wind and occasional clouds. We took our time going down the lake, savoring the views. There were lots of sticks/logs floating in the lake. The staff at the resort warned us that this was the most debris they have seen in the lake in a long time. This made driving the boat a little bit of an adventure!

I think this is Stetattle Ridge. Lots of snow!

Devil's Creek

Desolation Peak, our destination

The waterfalls are raging right now

By now it was early afternoon, and we started hiking up to Desolation Camp. We ran into a couple groups going down as we made our way up. Right now there are two streams on the way up, but one was tiny and the other was small, so be careful about water later in the season.

View of Jack from camp

After setting up the tent and relaxing for a while, we hauled water and cooking supplies to the lookout to make dinner and enjoy sunset. We brought microspikes as a recent TR plus satellite imagery showed some remaining snow, but by now the trail was only covered in snow in a few large patches that took just a few minutes to cross. This probably isn't a surprise to many readers here, but despite being a 6K tall mountain in the North Cascades, the trail to Desolation Peak melts out fairly early as the trail is mostly SW facing. While it's hard to get to, this is a great option for earlier in the season. From reading past TRs, I would guess that in most years this hike is doable with minimal snow in early- to mid-June. At the top the lookout had been opened for the season but was locked and the lookout attendant was not there. I was hoping to talk to the attendant, but it was cool to at least be able to peek into the lookout. Views from the top were fantastic. We enjoyed eating our dinners and having the summit all to ourselves. We didn't see people until we descended the next day.

Saturday, 7/2 I woke up early to hike back up to the lookout for sunrise while my fiancé slept. I had such bad sleep, I had one dream where I woke up to the sound of creepy people outside our tent, and other dream where I overslept my alarm and missed sunrise. Thankfully, I did not miss my alarm and it was quiet outside and the only creature I ran into on my way to the summit was a ptarmigan (we surprised each other).

Before sunrise there was a proper inversion with clouds resting above the lake, but quickly after I made it to the top the fog continued to rise and swirled around the peak. As sunrise progressed, views appeared and disappeared through the fog.

Eventually, I headed back to camp and we packed up our things and headed down.

We ran into three groups heading up as we headed down, two with motor boats and one hiking from Lightning Creek. My fiancé wasn't feeling 100%, so we decided to skip our final night at Hozomeen Lake and just do one more night, our night at Cat Island. Instead, we cruised down the lake to check out the Hozomeen campground/border before heading back to Cat Island to camp. The Hozomeen campground was creepy, it looked like it had been closed for years as so much was overgrown. It was completely empty and felt like a set out of the Walking Dead. The road from Canada is closed this season due to damage, so presumably the campground is getting very little use? The NCNP website lists one loop as being closed but the rest as being open, but again we didn't see anybody and the place looked abandoned.

Overgrown benches

Looking into Canada

This little ranger building looked like it hadn't been used it years

The Cut

After some exploring, we headed back down the lake to Cat Island.

Desolation Peak from the north

Cat Island with the float plane at the dock

Cat Island is a beautiful little spot where you feel secluded save for the other groups camping on the island with you. When we arrived there was a float plane parked at the dock, and we chatted with its owners for a little bit as we walked around the island. Cat Island feels like a fun mix of car camping and backcountry camping because while it's deep in the wilderness, you can access it via motorboat and bring lots of stuff with you as the hike from the dock to the campsites is very short.

The clouds are lighting up a tiny bit

A sliver of light on Jack

It started raining off and on by 7pm, and after sunset as it got dark we started noticing flashes of lightning to the south near Jack. We stayed up for a while staring at the sky, waiting for more flashes of light and lightning bolts. It was really neat to see, I don't think I have seen lightning in the Washington backcountry before. Sunday, 7/3 It was raining fairly hard on Sunday morning, so we relaxed the entire morning in the tent listening to the sound of rain on the tent. Most of my backcountry camping trips are relatively fast paced, so it was nice taking a slower pace for a change.

The ride back to Ross Lake Resort was wet but relatively short, at least compared to the kayakers who left Cat Island just before us. While I prefer clearer views to appreciate all of the nearby peaks, the lake had a different kind of beauty draped in a gray cloud cover. This is almost always the case, but after this short trip I am already plotting my return here. We talked about how our parents, who can't hike very much if at all any more, would love to come here to boat on the lake and/or stay at the resort (if they could find availability). We had lots of views of Sourdough/Stettale Ridge and Ruby Mountain from Ross Lake, and I'm looking forward to doing those some day to get more great views of Ross Lake!

[pula58]

Beautiful photos! Such a great trip!

[KascadeFlat]

Beautiful photos from a very special place! I especially loved the shots from Desolation. My dad and I picked up permits from the “abandoned” ranger building near Hozomeen in 2015 so I know it was still in use then. As we were standing on the porch a big ol’ black bear ran across the clearing directly behind the building.

[jaysway]

[Slim]