Cathedral Rock - Deception Pass Loop with Jaunt to Tuck's Pond and Robin Lakes

August 14 - 16 2009

We've done some incredible backpacking trips during our first summer in Seattle, but this one, which took us through misty forests and landed us high in mountain goat territory, ranks as our best hike so far. This 14 mile loop through the Alpine Lakes region has amazing scenery and challenging switchbacks on its own, but what makes it truly spectacular are the many side trips off of the loop, which lead to some really breathtaking spots.

Route 4330 is a bumpy, excruciatingly long dirt road in to the trail head. As we wound our way around the potholes I was waxing on the joys of an old 4WD pickup, but we definitely made it fine in our Mazda. We passed by a bunch of nice riverside campgrounds and campgrounds, and eventually made it to the trailhead.

The first thing I noticed in the parking lot was that it was cold, a lot colder than it had been. I'm still getting used to these west coast mountains and their impressive elevation gains. The second thing I noticed were all the horse trailers. The owners of one of these horse trailers chatted us up in the parking lot, and we found out that this is a popular spot for horse camping, as horses are allowed on many of the trails. This seemed pretty cool, until I realized a few hours later that horses that walk on trails also poop on trails, and since trails are narrow you spend a lot of time navigating your way around poop.

We did the loop clockwise, heading up to Squaw lake and Cathedral Rock first. A bunch of guides seem to recommend this for two reasons: you get the switchbacks out of the way first, and you avoid the many crowds that come in by way of the very flat trail that leads counterclockwise to Hyas Lake. Some steady switchbacks took us up 1000 feet and about 2 and a half miles to Squaw Lake, a translucent emerald green mountain lake.

From there, the trail heads more gradually uphill another 100 feet over 2 miles to Cathedral Rock. The forest got denser, and we started to catch glimpses of Cathedral Rock. The misty morning held the top of the Rock in clouds, but they passed just long enough to get a good picture. I can vouch that this rock was indeed named accurately -- rocks and mountains get so many crazy names but on this one I could definitely see the cathedral with spires stretching up into the sky.

Right as we came up on the Rock we bore right onto the Pacific Crest Trail, which was one of my favorite parts of the trail. The trail flattened out, wandering through meadows and woods, and wildflowers, and offering up some awesome views up to the surrounding mountains and down to Hyas Lake.

We ended up making camp just before Deception Pass, at a tiny pond. The pond is the tiny unmarked blue splotch just before Deception Pass, and there is a nice spot for a tent between the trail and it. We had been a little worried about bugs as there had been recent reports warning of mosquito feeding frenzies in the area, but we didn't have much of a problem and the pond worked out well for pumping water.

We wanted to do a side trip for the day, and decided in the morning to hike up to Tuck's Lake and Robin Lakes. We knew it would be steep, but we hadn't read up much on the actual hike, so we didn't have a good idea of what we were in for. The trail up to the lakes is pretty much just a steep scramble up the side of a mountain. We passed a woman hiking up with her daughter who said, "They weren't kidding when they said straight up." That made me feel a little better because I was dogging it. Hiking entails a lot of uphill climbs, but this one was really steep and unrelenting, and you had to watch your footing in the rocks. 2 miles and 1,000 feet gain brought us to Tuck's Pot and Tuck's Lake, an idyllic pair of bright blue lakes surrounded by rocky cliffs and evergreen trees. I sort of wanted to stop right there, eat my lunch, take a long nap, and forget all about Robin's Lake. I even began to wish we had brought our packs, because I liked the idea of staying in this wonderful place and hiking no further.

But after a short water break and some pictures, we headed on up the trail to Robin's Lake. This is where is started to get a little confusing -- there are tons of paths crisscrossing the perimeter of Tuck's Lake and Pot, leading to campsites, down to the water, and up to good viewpoints. We kept losing the trail and ending up circling around various campsites. We finally figured out that the trail heads out between the Lake and Pot, passable over a logjam.

At this point, the path basically turned into a rock scramble over huge boulders. I loved watching Tuck's Lake get smaller and smaller as we climbed higher and higher, seemingly straight up. The path from Tuck's Lake up to Robin's Lake is basically another 1000 feet of elevation gain in 2 miles, but scrambling over the huge rocks was a lot more fun than slogging up the rocky path to Tuck's Lake, and the views on this part of the trail were just stunning. (I run out of adjective for some of these hikes!)

The trail got so rocky that there really wasn't a trail anymore, just a series of cairns to follow. A lot of alternate routs have been carved out from cairn to cairn, so everyone we ran into was always asking, "Am I on the trail?" We finally figured out that all roads were leading to the Robin Lakes, so we stopped worrying about it. We had to push Cody up in a few dicey spots.

Finally, the rocks leveled out a little more, and we came out on Robin's Lake. If Tuck's Lake was idyllic, then this place would be a sort of paradise. Huge white cliffs rising up around these absolutely clear blue lakes. I kept thinking about Heidi going up to the mountains to get well. We even saw a couple mountain goats. We'd gone from dense forest to mountain goat territory in just a few very steep miles.

While it's a pretty magical place to camp, it's worth mentioning that because of the huge cliffs, there are limited spaces for camping around the lakes. And, on a Saturday evening, the place was definitely filling up. You can sense that this is a place in need of protecting. Longtime Northwest hikers Ira Spring and Harvey Manning advise filling your water bottle at the lakes and then retreating to camp away from the lake in a nook or on a ridge -- and to "only camp in this neighborhood of Heaven when essential to your soul."

The last day was a fairly easy hike out, thankfully, since we were pretty knackered from the vertical climb the day before. The last few miles really flatten out along the 2-mile long Hyas Lake. Apparently, this is the go-to destination for young families, who come here to break in small kids, and we passed tons of families camped along the lake on our way out. We smelled a whole lot of pancakes and bacon frying. For an introduction to camping, you could do a lot worse than a hot breakfast at a pristine mountain lake.

As a bonus, we stopped in Roslyn (where Northern Exposure was filmed) on our way out, checked out their Sunday Farmer's Market and had a post-hike veggie burger, fries, and onion rings at the Brick.

Directions: Drive east from Seattle on Interstate 90 to the Roslyn exit, and follow the road north past Salmon La Sac campground. Keep going north on Fish Lake Road (#4330) until you get to the end of the road and the Hyas Lake/Deception Pass trailhead.