Sauk Mountain

Author's Comments

There is a particular kind of mountain that gives you everything for almost nothing, and Sauk is that mountain. The trailhead sits high enough that you start the hike already most of the way to the view, and the climb that follows is more switchback meditation than effort. Two miles up. Two miles down. And in between, a summit that turns in every direction and shows you something different on each face. Late July is the week. The meadows along the trail go fully into bloom then, and the wildflowers are not a backdrop but a foreground - lupine and paintbrush and beargrass running right up to the edge of the switchbacks, with the Skagit Valley falling away below and the Cascades stacking into the distance. I shoot the meadows on the way up, when the light is still climbing, and save the summit for the descent into golden hour. From the top on a clear evening you can see the San Juans laid out on the water to the west, and the long ridge of the North Cascades pulling east into the dusk. Baker sits closer than feels reasonable. The road in is the price. Forest Road 1030 is steep and rutted and asks for clearance you may not have brought. Drive it slowly. Drive it earlier in the day than you think you need to, because the descent in the dark is a different proposition than the climb in the light. Bring a wide lens for the ridgeline and something longer for the layered ranges to the east, where the light separates the peaks into bands of blue that get paler the farther they go. This is a mountain that rewards staying late.

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