Monte Cristo to Silver Lake
This is Part 2 of 2 posts on my Monte Cristo - Silver Lake trip, in the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest area of Washington state. There is another Silver Lake hike in Washington state (in the Olympics), so if you're here from a Google search, make sure you're in the right spot!
I will include some details on Monte Cristo and the beginning part of the trail in this write-up, but more specifics on hiking to the ghost town can be found here. Silver Lake is about 2 very steep miles past Monte Cristo, so your adventure will be more strenuous, but worth it.
Hiking to Silver Lake from Monte Cristo - Logistics
You'll park at the Barlow Pass trailhead, which gets very crowded, as it is the jumping off point for many incredible hikes and climbs. Here are the basics for planning your trip:
Start at the Barlow Pass trailhead (Google Maps pin here) - it's about 5 hours from Portland, and 2 hours from Seattle. Arrive early, as it will be extremely crowded.
National Forest Pass or America the Beautiful Pass is required for parking in lots (not sure about street parking... we forgot ours so we parked on the street and were not ticketed)
The hike to Silver Lake is about 13 miles roundtrip, with 2,500 feet elevation gain.
There is a river crossing that could be difficult for some people and pets.
Do not drink any water here! The former mining operations have contaminated the water with heavy metals, and standard filtering/boiling/chemical treatment doesn't remove the toxins.
AllTrails Link here
Washington Trails Association Link here
Arriving at the Trailhead and Nearby Campgrounds
We drove up from Portland on the evening of Friday, July 3. We expectd grounds, but it was so much worse - every campground and dispersed camp spot was taken up by 8 pm. It took a while, but we found a decent spot pretty far from the trailhead. Cars were passing by looking for sites until well past 1 am, and I felt so bad for those who couldn't find one.
Don't be like us! Arrive earlier, or hike on a weekday if possible. The two closest campgrounds are: Coal Creek Campground and Bedal Campground.
They're both managed by the US Forest Service and must be reserved on Recreation.gov. There are many more USFS sites on Mountain Loop highway east of Granite Falls before the trailhead (double check if they're still in use first). There are also many dispersed camping sites along the Highway.
Barlow Pass Trailhead is the gateway to many popular hikes and climbs, so it also fills up quickly. We had a late start and found a spot on the road, but be prepared to park pretty far away. Remember your NW Forest Pass or America the Beautiful Pass!
After sharing the Barlow Pass trail for a little bit, many other hikers and climbers will veer right to Gothic Basin, but you'll stay to the left to get to Monte Cristo and Silver Lake. Considering you have to cross a literal river, you won't miss the turnoff. Just be sure to keep left at the first fork! The crowds will thin out after the trail splits off.
The First Few Miles
The hike up to Monte Cristo is very easy. It follows an old railroad path so it is wide, packed gravel, and gently graded, with the exception of a few places before the river crossing. The South Fork of the Sauk River is to your right, and views of the Cascades are plentiful.
Remember to stay left at the first fork! Taking the right fork will bring you to Gothic Basin, another very popular hike. About a mile in, you'll see an outhouse (it looked horrific, just pee in the woods). To the right of the outhouse is the second fork that also crosses over to the Gothic Basin trail. At this point, you'll cross the Sauk River via a log jam. The river crossing is infamous and scares a lot of people away, but it wasn't that bad.
The trail continues past the river crossing, still mostly flat. You'll pass a sign for the "Weden House" that marks the old headquarters for the mining company, but there's no remnants of the house.
Reaching the Monte Cristo Ghost Town
I posted a full trip report of the Monte Cristo ghost town last week, so you can read more details here.
As you get closer to Monte Cristo, you'll start to see ruins of old cabins, equipment, and cars. It's fun to wander through these and wonder what happened here! I found a newspaper dated 1991 in one of the cabins, so it was occupied at least until then. Who knows what happened after that?
Shortly after the last ruins, after hiking around 4 miles, you have reached Monte Cristo! There is a modern campground to the left of the townsite, where you can spend the night if you choose to make this a backpacking trip, or go beyond Silver Lake to another alpine lake or peak.
Monte Cristo was smaller than I expected, but fun to wander around. There are remnants of old buildings, a railway turntable, and equipment scattered around. There are picnic tables which make for a good lunch spot before the climb up Poodle Dog Pass.
Walk through the Monte Cristo site to find the trail to Poodle Dog Pass. It is clearly marked, so you won't miss it! This trail also goes to Twin Lakes, which are shortly after Silver Lake. We were both exhausted and running out of daylight so we turned around at Silver Lake. The trail becomes steep after Monte Cristo, and since we'd already hiked 4-5 flat miles, it's tough for tired legs to adjust to sudden incline.
Monte Cristo itself is a wonderful destination, so if you turn around here, your hike will be about 8-9 miles depending on how many of the ruins you explored. It is quite easy due to the gently graded railroad trail, and makes for a good hike with children. There's plenty of incredible views even without continuing to the alpine lakes.
Climbing Poodle Dog Pass
Immediately after Monte Cristo, the trail becomes narrower and rocky, with instant switchbacks. It's not terrible, but hard to adjust to after 4-5 miles on a gentle gravel road. The trail starts in the forest. I was excited to see a sign that we entered the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness!
Near the top of the treeline are several downed trees. A fellow hiker told us she counted over 10. Some of them are tall and could be difficult for shorter hikers. I am 5'7" and I struggled with a few.
Once you reach the top of the treeline, the views start to get insane. You can see the top of Gothic Basin, and it starts to make sense why so many hikers and climbers took that route. At this point, the trail feels like it goes on forever, so the views are a nice distraction from the pain. It's only about 2,000 feet of elevation gain in 2 miles, so really not awful, but somehow felt a lot harder.
You'll finally cross over Poodle Dog Pass after about 2 miles of climbing. My favorite part of any alpine hike is the moment you cross the threshold and can see into the valley. Poodle Dog Pass did not disappoint - the views were stunning even before the lake was visible. It's another quarter mile down to the lake (which sucks because losing elevation means you'll have to climb on the way back).
Silver Lake
You'll finally see Silver Lake after 7 miles of hiking! It's bigger than I expected and has many campsites. We were lucky enough to have the entire lake to ourselves for a while before a few other hikers came by. The lake is surrounded by peaks and still had snowy patches in July.
Jorge fly fished in Silver Lake but didn't catch anything. Stitch wanted to swim so badly he chewed through his leash and gave us all a startle. We had tied him to a tree while Jorge was fishing so he wouldn't attempt to chase the rod, but he broke free and swam 100 yards to get to Jorge.
I waded in up to my knees. It was too cold for me to swim, but the group nearby was skinny dipping! The hike coincided with our one-year wedding anniversary so we brought charcuterie and beers to celebrate (we're not fancy people - a picnic at an alpine lake is far better than some dinner reservation).
Stitch enjoying his illegal swim Cheers to one year! Portable charcuterie
We stayed at Silver Lake for maybe an hour and a half, but remembered we had a 7 mile hike back to the car and were running out of daylight. I definitely didn't want to attempt the river crossing in the dark, so we headed back around 5 pm. The mosquitoes had found us and were becoming unbearable despite my bug net fashion.
Hiking down Poodle Dog Pass was much faster than trudging up, and the views were even better facing the basin. We flew down the trail, crossed the downed trees for a second time, and made it back to Monte Cristo for a quick rest before the easy hike on the road.
We crossed the river just before sunset! It wasn't a horrible crossing, but would be slightly terrifying in the dark. When we finally got back to our car, it was pitch black out and most of the other cars were gone. My Strava clocked almost 20 miles, but we likely did around 15 with all our off trail exploring.
Silver Lake ended up being our last alpine lake of the summer (so far!) as we had a disaster with our dog just a few days later. I was frustrated to have summer plans cut short, but feel grateful that we squeezed Silver Lake in while we still could!
I hope you get the chance to check it out! Combining a ghost town, abandoned buildings, history, alpine peaks, old growth forest, amazing views of the Cascades, and a crystal clear lake sounds like the perfect hike to me.
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