My oldest daughter, Jema, invited me on a last minute backpacking trip last year around the Three Sisters in Oregon. We had such an amazing time, we planned another trip again and managed to convince another daughter, Kena, to come along on the adventure. We haven’t explored Washington nearly as much as Oregon, so Glacier Peak Wilderness became our next target, specifically the Spider Gap Loop, which we hiked in four days. Follow along on our trip through these photos…
The loop has a couple miles of hiking on a fairly rough road. We chose to start our hike with that section instead of ending our trail hiking at a parking lot and then having to walk a couple more miles uphill on a road. Once we made it to the real trail, we were enclosed in forest until this meadow near the top of the valley.
One interesting note. I had printed out a bunch of topo maps that had great topographical and trail details. But, there’s another map out there that shows where some pretty cool camp spots are that I should have tracked down and brought along instead. This was our first spot, which worked out great.
Our evening entertainment was to read a book. We finished the whole book by the end of the trip (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe).
The next day looked like the toughest hike. We started at the top of the valley down below and climbed quickly.
This is almost the same photo as a picture up above. But this one shows a super cool tent site. It’s on the bottom right of the photo, hanging just above an awesome view. Turns out this spot was taken for the night before, so I’m glad we chose the spot we did. But if I had a choice, I’d choose this one since it’s one of the best camp spots I’ve ever seen.
From this point on, we were scrambling up without a trail over a snowpack. From the reading I’d done, it looks like it can be sketchy at times due to weather conditions. But our day turned out perfect.
Wow. This is what we saw on the other side. The peaks seemed to surround us. Also, we met some other hikers who had that map I was talking about earlier. I took photos of it so we could plan out better where to spend the night.
I really should put the video on here of the girls sliding down quick style on their rears all the way down the rest of the snow. That was the best descent ever. I was a pansy and didn’t want wet shorts and slid, somewhat out of control, down on my feet.
Wildflowers were everywhere.
Ok, let’s pause here. We are looking back at the pass we scrambled up the snow and slid down into the valley we are looking at now. That particular pass is just below the high clouds in the sky that are to the right of Kena. We were impressed we could cover so much ground on our own feet, and we weren’t even done hiking for the day yet.
We finally found our spot for the night. I know that naan, cream cheese, and tuna doesn’t sound delicious usually, but it tasted SO amazing that evening for dinner. Also, we did a little laundry and set out the stuff to dry.
Our only group shot.
It felt like The Sound of Music.
Another dinner that isn’t fancy, but tasted so good.
We were a little obsessed with these Dr. Seuss type flowers.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening finishing the book, eating dinner, and watching the changing view. It was soooo pretty.
One other big highlight was running into another mom and her two ‘kids’ doing the same sort of backpacking trip. Funny how I didn’t expect to meet kindred spirits in the middle of nowhere, but they were a sweet surprise and fun way to enjoy that beautiful spot.
Our last view of Glacier Peak as we woke just as the sun rose to make our way out of the wilderness. I’m convinced we need to explore more of Washington!
