The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Welcome to the The Washington State Hiking Podcast with your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Along with part time co-host and guidebook author Craig Romano, she provides practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers of all skill and ability levels that is practical, accurate, fun and inclusive. We cover hikes near Seattle and Tacoma as well as hikes all across Washington from the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the Shrub Steppe of Eastern Washington.
Jennie is a middle aged, plus sized, frequently solo slow hiker and a born and raised Washingtonian and has enjoyed Washington's trails her entire life. Craig is a trail runner and ultra marathoner who also loves the mellow walk close to home. Originally from New Hampshire, he has made his home in Washington for more than 30 years. He the author of more than 20 guidebooks covering trails across Washington State and beyond.
The Washington State Hiking Podcast
3 Amazing September Hikes in the Cascade Mountains
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Jennie shares her top three September hikes in Washington's Cascade Mountains.
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Welcome to the Washington State Hiking Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming,
and I'm your co-host Craig Romano.
Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners, and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun, and inclusive.
Hi everyone, it's Jennie. I'm on my own today and I am excited to share with all of you three incredible hikes for September in the Cascade Mountains and. I have to tell you that September is one of my favorite hiking months. You all know already that Craig and I both believe in year round hiking.
We've shared many times on this podcast, different benefits of different seasons, but I personally really love September. And October. Those are my two favorite hiking months. So I wanted to take a few minutes today to just share with you three hikes, different skill levels, different parts of the Cascade Mountains.
One of the things that's really wonderful about September hiking is that it's still. Generally speaking, summer still got warm, sunny days. Of course, the days are getting shorter. We do sometimes have rain in September. Of course, especially in the mountains, it can get really cold at high altitude. So it is important to note that the Thete, the seasons are starting to change this time of year.
But along with that comes less heat, usually less smoke. And not always. It depends on where you are and the circumstances and way less bugs, which is a really big deal. It's still busy out on the trails, a little less busy than July and August, but still pretty busy. So it's not like you're gonna have a crowd free experience unless you go to places with less crowds to start with.
. On, in the hikes I'm talking about today, none of these are ones for complete solitude. But they're all ones that you can have a wonderful time on, even if other people are around. So why am I talking about these three in particular? Each of them has some wonderful early fall color because of the altitude.
And along with some berries, like huckleberries, blueberries, which is a really fun thing about late August and September hiking. Fall colors start to change, so depending on your altitude in Washington, you can see fall colors anytime from September through November. So it depends on the climate you're in, the type of plants that are changing color, and what the weather is like where you are in Washington.
All of those things. These hikes today are ones that go up to high enough altitude that they have berry bushes and shrubs that are changing color. Certainly by mid-September. And that makes them just really beautiful, gives a nice pop to your photos and that sort of thing. So let's dive into it. So there's three I wanted to talk about today.
So the first one is Lake Valhalla. It's near Stevens Pass. And this hike, there's a couple ways to do it. You can actually start from Steven's Pass or you can go over to the actual. Trail ahead for Lake Valhalla. And if you do that, it's about a seven mile ran trip hike. It has about 1500 feet of elevation gain.
The last time I did it, which was a couple years ago, the trail was in really good condition. It'll definitely be busy. But it's beautiful and super worth it. You hike mostly through the forest when you get to the lake. It's surrounded by mountains. It's a beautiful alpine lake, and they're a gorgeous red and orange berry bushes turning color.
That you can see around the lake and if it's still hot and summery, it's a great swimming lake too. I know we talked about swimming hikes earlier in August. I don't believe this was one we talked about on that episode, but it is a pretty great swimming lake. All right. Let's move on to the second one I wanted to talk about today.
And that is any hike that starts at sunrise in Mount Rainier National Park. So you still need a timed entry permit to go up to sunrise. They're easier to get in. September, you can get one at 7:00 PM the night before. So if you didn't plan ahead you can probably still get one if you plan ahead the day before and you're flexible about the time that you arrive.
I love the sunrise area. It's one of my favorite parks of Mount Rainier. I think you already know, if you heard our episode a few months ago where Craig and I talked about the Carbon River area, which is just amazing, but unfortunately is closed right now. But as far as alpine areas, I really prefer sunrise to paradise.
I think the views of the mountain are better. It's a little less frantic, a little less busy. The timed entry permits have been working quite well there to manage crowds and parking. If you, so this is a good one. If you are not a hiker, you probably are because you probably wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you weren't.
But if you have people with you who are not hikers, the sunrise picnic area is an awesome picnic location. It's absolutely beautiful. It's a very short distance from the parking area and. Even for, I'm a hiker and I enjoy going in there and having a picnic with people who don't hike. So just wanted to mention that as well.
A couple hikes you can do at Sunrise. One is Burroughs Mountain. And Burroughs Mountain has, there's Burroughs 1, 2, 3. So it's a little bit of a choose your own adventure. Goes up to. A really long, challenging hike or a much shorter one. Great views of the mountain the whole way. I also really love Mount Fremont and the Mount Fremont lookout has gotten really popular recently, like since the pandemic, which is interesting.
And it's, but it's one of the reasons why they've had trouble managing parking and things like that because people have been going up there to see the sunrise, which is pretty cool. And if you're up for getting up that early, that would be pretty awesome. But it's a pretty great hike no matter what.
From sunrise, it's about six miles round trip with just under a thousand feet of elevation gain to the lookout. I will also say that the whole trail is really beautiful, so if you don't go all the way to the lookout, you'll still get some really great views. Another thing I wanted to mention about the sunrise area is the parking lot is at 6,000 feet of elevation.
And so that makes these, both of these hikes I just mentioned feel harder than they actually are. And when I was a hiking guide, this is one of the places that I took people on tours quite frequently 'cause it was so much less. Crazy than Paradise and unique and I loved it so much and people always really loved going there.
However, that extra thousand feet, this happens at Paradise too, but you'll really feel the elevation if you live at sea level. So just a heads up on that, when you start out of the parking lot, both Boroughs Mountain and Mount Fremont start on the same trail from Paradise, which kind of goes up a meadow to to frozen lake, which is less than a mile. But even just in that distance, some people get a little freaked out because they are breathing more heavily than they're used to. So just be prepared for that that it might take you a little longer or you might be a bit more tired than you would be on another, on a lower elevation hike.
Of the same challenge level. So just heads up for that about sunrise, 'cause that catches people off guard quite frequently. Alright, finally, so we've talked about lake Valhalla, near Stevens Pass. We've talked about sunrise in Mount Rainier National Park. The last one I wanted to mention is Kendall Katwalk, which is on.
The Pacific Crest Trail near Sno. Call me Pass. Kendall Katwalk is a pretty difficult hike. It's 12 miles round trip with 2,600 feet of elevation gain. So getting all the way to the catwalk is tough. It's beautiful and also it's a little narrow for me, honestly. I don't, I like to go to it and turn around there.
But it is a cool place for. Those who are okay with the exposure, but it's also shortly before you get to the catwalk, there's a meadow that has lots of bright colored berry bushes in September. The other thing about Kendall Katwalk and this, and you don't have to go all the way to see this, the whole Pacific Crest trail and in.
Lots of trails and even highways that go over the cascades have beautiful vine maples in September, and those are the trees that kind of turn into a rainbow. They're more of a bush than a tree, but they get red on the ends. And then orange, yellow, green they're just beautiful. And the Pacific Crest Trail, its whole length is a really good place to see them.
So even if you only went a short distance on the PCT from Sno, call me Pass. You would definitely see some cool fall colors starting in mid-September. So those are the trails that I wanted to share with you today. I hope you get out to try at least one of these during the month of September. Craig and I love hearing from you.
We've gotten a few questions over the summer that we are going to share answers for when we record together next time in a couple weeks. So if you've got questions or you wanna share feedback or other favorite hikes, please send them to us. Use that text button in the show notes and just keep in mind that we can't respond there.
All right happy September everyone. Enjoy your time out there and we'll see you next week.
If you are enjoying the Washington State Hiking Podcast, Craig and I would love to have you leave us a rating and a review that helps other people find us. And if you wanna support us financially, you can leave us a tip through the show notes. No account, no commitment, nothing like that. Thank you so much for listening and see you next week.
