snow and wildflowers | hannegan peak backpacking

10.5 miles . 3100 ft gain . 6200 ft high

Mount Baker Wilderness

In 24 hours we experienced everything from winter to summer. It’s amazing what 3000 ft of elevation difference can do in the mountains, especially in the North Cascades

After the lovely fresh air I’ve had in the recent weekends, I was yearning for more. The past couple years, I’ve felt a slight lack of motivation to spend time in the mountains but I felt it coming back again this year. Springtime/early summer is particularly great for mountain adventures because it’s not yet too hot and the bugs have yet to come out. The only issue is that there might be some snow at high elevations to deal with, as in the case of Hannegan Peak.

Wildflowers

One of the best things about summer in Washington is the wildflowers. I’m slowly learning the basic flowers and challenging myself to remember the common names. Now I’m trying to be more specific like learning lupine vs broadleaf lupine. And I even found a couple new flowers on the trail! It made the trail super fun to notice all the little details that I would have otherwise ignored.

The first 4ish miles start off just above the valley floor. Our first day began more cloudy which made the waterfalls so impressive and moody. Before I knew it, we got peek-a-boo views of Ruth Mountain. It returned memories from a couple years back when I had one of the best alpenglow overnight mission I’ve ever had. I was hopeful for something similar this time around, pending the clouds dissipating.

The mellow trail soon switchbacked uphill through the forest. We skipped past Hannegan Camp and Hannegan Pass where we saw a handful of people setting up tents there. Really, either of these are not the best camps for views. You gotta get higher!

Snow

As soon as we started to ascend to the pass, we started to have to walk on snow. But it wasn’t until after the pass that we had to get off trail and ascend directly uphill for ease of travel. Occasionally, we would have a smidge of a trail to follow. But then we would have to get back on the steeper snow. There were not many steps kicked in and microspikes were definitely the call for this season. It was a rather short steep uphill before walking along the ridge to the summit. Having looked at the satellite imagery, I could tell there were spots of dry ground, but wasn’t sure where the best spot was to camp.

Surprisingly as we approached Hannegan Peak, I found 2 perfect bivy sites, one flatter and smaller and another bumpier but with a wind wall. It just barely fit two 2-person tents. I do wonder if there would be more bivy sites when the snow melts out or if this is it. In that case, coming while it still is snowy is best for finding a campsite.

Snow also means we didn’t need to carry as much water and just had to bring enough fuel to melt snow. Keeping in mind that if it freezes overnight that morning snow might be ice and difficult to break away to melt.

Alpenglow

Cutting to the chase, unfortunately we had so much clouds that we didn’t quite get the sky full of pastel colors. After setting up camp, I huddled in my tent to stay warm, only briefly taking a break to cook dinner before the sunset. But though sunset was not filled with the alpenglow I had hoped for, it was filled with unique and stunning lighting through the clouds!

Likewise in the morning, I waited patiently for the pretty pink to show, and it actually showed up late. So it’s wise to stay an extra at least 30 minutes in case the light show continues in a way you don’t expect.

Notes

• Parking at Hannegan Trail. Toilet and picnic tables available
• No overnight permit needed, but parking pass for NW forest is required
• Dogs area allowed as long as they are within national forest and not national park

Photos taken with Canon R5