Maple Pass Loop

Author's Comments

The larches are the reason most people come, and I will not pretend otherwise. For about two weeks in late September into early October, the subalpine slopes above Rainy Pass turn a gold that does not quite exist anywhere else in the lower forty-eight. It is not yellow. It is not amber. It is something closer to lit metal, and when the morning sun finds the ridge above Lake Ann, the whole basin becomes a single warm bowl held against the cold blue of the North Cascades. Hike it counterclockwise. Everyone will tell you this and everyone is right. The climb earns you the views in the order they should arrive, and by the time you reach the high traverse above Lake Ann, the sun has come around far enough to light the larches from the side rather than behind. That side light is the photograph. The trees go three-dimensional. The lake below holds the sky. The crowds in larch season are real. Arrive at the trailhead before seven on a fall weekend or you will not park, and the trail itself will move at the pace of the slowest group. I have learned to keep walking past the obvious overlooks and find a quieter perch a few hundred feet further on. There is almost always one. Bring a wide lens for the basin shots and something longer for the larches themselves, which compress beautifully against the dark conifers below them. And do not forget to look down. The detail shots, single branches against shadow, frost on the needles in the early hour, are often the ones I keep.

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