I’m not one to argue when my wife texts me from her work on Saturday with: “Do you want to drive the Mountain Loop Highway tomorrow?” This, after all, was her idea, which is better than if it were my idea. So, I reply: “Sounds good. I will ready the preparations” *
The Mountain Loop Highway is a 52-mile scenic drive through the North Cascades that runs from Granite Falls to Darrington (or the other way around). It’s not really a loop. Most of the road is a paved two-lane state highway. The middle part is an unpaved 13-mile forest road peppered with potholes. We made two stops along the way for short hikes. First stop was the Big Four Ice Caves. The second stop was North Fork Sauk Falls. Let’s go for a drive and a couple hikes.
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The Big Four Ice Caves is a nice short hike of about a mile leading to a big pile of snow that never melts. It’s an extremely popular destination of almost amusement park proportions, but one with deadly consequences for the foolish. We were early enough to avoid the crowds. It’s a nice hike, so let’s hike to the Ice Caves.
And then after a short mile we arrive at the Big Four Ice Caves.
Just a quick overview of geology at Big Four and then we can move on.
The Darrington — Devils Mountain Fault Zone (DDMFZ) as seen on the above map is one of several crustal faults that are present underneath the Puget Sound region. These faults have the potential to release up to an M7 magnitude earthquake. Our recent M4.3 quake on 10/8/23 was a crustal quake. Here’s a technical paper on the DDMFZ, worth looking at the figures: Holocene earthquakes and right-lateral slip on the left-lateral Darrington–Devils Mountain fault zone, northern Puget Sound, Washington
Here’s an hour-long video from geologist Nick Zentner that covers the geology of the area and takes you on a nice walk right up to the ice caves. It’s an hour-long, though worth a watch if you have time.
Okay, let’s hit the road again. The pavement ends at Barlow Pass becoming a slow-going pothole dodging slalom course. It’s fine for any conventional vehicle. You just need to take it easy in a regular car or even in our Toyota Highlander.
Along the way we were gobsmacked by this beautiful small lake and wetland area. So, we stopped for photos. Zooming in on Myrtle Lake.
Our next stop was North Fork Sauk Falls. From the Mountain Loop Highway we took a single-track forest road for about a mile. From the small parking area it was a short, steep hike but well worth it.
My wife shot a short 12-second video of the falls.
youtube.com/…
The short hike to the falls provided a little nature.
From the falls we moved farther along. We stopped at a picnic area with an overlook. My wife had packed southwestern chicken wraps and chocolate chip cookies from Costco. Enjoy the view.
Emerging out of the mountains my wife had another suggestion: “Do you want to make a stop at Skookum Brewery?” It was her idea after all. Great way to end a perfect day.
What’s going on in everyone’s worlds? It’s a time of season change, moving straight into fall. What are you seeing that reflects this change of season?
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* The little catch phrase “ready the preparations” is a line from the B-horror movie spoof The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, when Lattis says to Kro-Bar “Come, let us ready the preparations” It’s now a pre-road trip family saying around our place. Does anyone else have family catch phrases from movies?