Gothic Basin

Location: North Cascades - Mountain Loop Highway

Length: 9 miles roundtrip

Elevation: Gain/2840 ft. Highest/ 5200 ft. 

Difficulty: Severe

Time: 7 hours

Foggy Lake

Elevation is a funny thing when it comes to hiking. You always want to believe there is a direct correlation between elevation gain and the difficulty of the hike. Some elevation gains are manageable when evenly spread out and others torture you with extremely steep parts. This hike does not offer tidy switchbacks but rather forces you to climb straight up and even do some scrambling at times. I do not recommend this hike to those with bad knees or ankles. Once you reach the top, you better be comfortable navigating a mile wide field of extremely sharp, jagged boulders and chunky rocks.

Also, don’t plan on being able to attend a wedding later in the day. That is just foolhardy.

From Granite Falls, take HWY 530 and drive past the Verlot Ranger Station for about 20 miles. The trailhead for Monte Cristo—a nice, scenic and far less severe alternative—is on the right, just before the pavement turns into gravel. This parking lot is known for theft: you’ve been warned.

The flat trail makes for a nice warm up as it parallels Sauk River for about a mile. Once you reach the information board for Weeden Creek & Gothic Basin, cut up into the woods on the right as the trail to the left leads to Monte Cristo.

Not long after you enter the woods you’ll cross a wooden boardwalk through skunk cabbage and over Weeden Creek. Next, mentally prepare yourself to endure some serious climbing.

Even after the grueling ascent, the work isn’t quite over, as you have an expansive boulder field to explore! We spent another hour and a half finding the perfect spot to set up camp on Foggy Lake. The path diverges into multiple directions as there are many places to set up camp. Follow the many cairns to get to the lake.

Plenty of beautiful waterfalls on this hike!

The pikas kept us up all night; they were either infuriated that we were in their territory or because we had sandwiches in our tent that we did not share. Make sure to store your food properly! We woke up to a light dusting of snow and shivered our way down.