Cutthroat Lake

Larch season was here, and we landed on Cutthroat Lake as the perfect place for a family hike, with my wife, 9 year old son, both my parents and their dogs, one of whom is 14 years old. I had originally wanted to take the family to Cutthroat Lake this summer for a hike, but the Easy Fire had kept me away and it had been on my to do list ever since. I was a bit concerned about the crowds given it was Larch season, and a friend had mentioned there were hundreds of people at Ann Lake this past Thursday, but decided we would give it a go.

Arriving at 10am, the main parking lots were full and we parked along the north side of the road, a couple of hundred yards from the trailhead. In retrospect, I was pleasantly surprised with the number of people. We had a couple groups of mountain bikers pass us on the way up, and a couple of small groups coming down, while at the lake there were only a handful of people. On our way back to the car, we definitely passed more groups coming up, but I want to say there were less than 50 people. Not too bad for peak larch season!

It was cold, with snow visible on the upper peaks, and fortunately my mother had brought gloves, as my son's hands were quite cold. It surely felt like fall as we started out on the trail and passed over Cutthroat Creek.

Bridge over Cutthroat Creek

The trail switchbacks a couple of times after the bridge, putting us a couple of hundred yards above the creek, and then proceeded directly up the valley. It's a nice trail, fairly wide for a hiking trail and there is really no sustained elevation gain, it's very gradual. Within the first half mile, you also get views of Cutthroat Peak, and we could see the larches and snow on the mountainside.

My dad hiking along Cutthroat Pass trail

While the trail is a mix of forest and more open areas, we quickly warmed up hiking, and the temperatures steadily rose as the day progressed. While we could see our breath when we first left the car, that wasn't the case a half hour into the hike.

My son hiking

A little over a mile and a half into the hike we reached the junction with the Cutthroat Lake trail and descended a small amount down towards Cutthroat Creek. There was a small crossing sans bridge, but it was fairly easy to get across via logs and rocks, although my parent's 14 year old dog took her time wading through the stream, seeming to lap up water in between every step.

Cutthroat Creek

There was a small amount of up and down along the Cutthroat Lake trail, but before long we were on the banks of the lake with amazing views of the surrounding mountains, which had a small amount of snow on the upper sections. The larches were just coming into color, I'm thinking the next weekend might have been primetime, but it was still very scenic. And there were only a handful of people spread out around the lake, so it felt peaceful.

Cutthroat Lake

We took a family selfie, snapped some more photos of the lake and then began the hike back to the car.

Family selfie

It's a great family hike in the North Cascades, one of the few that combines a lake and beautiful scenery with low mileage and elevation gain. And the crowds weren't too bad for larch season.