Last Sunday morning, my cousin Casey and myself headed up to the Mountain Loop Highway to Monte Cristo. We were planning to make our way up to Twin Lakes for three days of fun in the sun. We arrived at the Monte Cristo trailhead around 1 p.m., geared up and set out.
The first part of the trail was ridiculously easy, and is a great family dayhike. Basically, it's a road. The reason you can't drive it is because it's washed-out in many places, but there are detour paths to overcome these obstacles. Altogether, it's a relatively flat road along a river with great views. After four miles of hiking, you hit the ghost town of Monte Cristo, which is a neat site in itself with all the 19th-century mining relics.
From there, something resembling a hike began. We followed the Silver Lake trailhead up switchbacks for another two miles to Poodle Dog Pass. The trail was in immaculate condition with the exception of a blowdown or two and a couple patches of snow. When we did reach Silver Lake, we were so smitten by the view of it, that we decided to stop there instead of continuing to our final destination of Twin Lakes (save that for another day). There was deep snow at the pass and around the lake, but it was hard-packed and made everything absolutely beautiful. We wandered across a meadow to the lake, and found the perfect spot. We were up on the lip of the bowl that surrounded the lake, and had all of Silver Lake and the mountains that backed it to one side. To the other side of our site, there was a steep hill down into a valley full of trees where the stream from Silver Lake poured into. This scenic campsite made me even more furious I forgot my camera.
We spent that night and the following day just hanging at the site and the surrounding area. We built a fire (though it's not allowed) and enjoyed the views. The weather was great, though the snow did make exploring not as easy as it might otherwise have been. The bugs were feirce in the late afternoon, but otherwise a non-issue. We were upset that we also forgot a deck of cards, so Casey tried to fashion one out of notebook paper, but that proved to be a dismal failure. The time spent lounging in the sun and hanging around the fire was pleasant enough, and we both found the experience fulfilling.
The hike down the following day was easy enough, and we were in Omega Pizza & Pasta in Granite Falls, gorging ourselves, by 1 p.m.
All in all, we had a great time, and I hope to get back up there to see Twin Lakes (and take my damn camera next time!).
