I'm not sure how I had never done this hike before. In fact I'd rarely heard about it, but I can see why it's considered the crown jewel of the North Cascades. Permits were already taken for the sites at the lake, but we found an established site on the National Forest side of the hike as the ranger in Marblemount had suggested.
My friend Becca and I weren't completely sure we were doing this hike until about noon on the day we hiked up. We didn't start hiking until 5:30, but that ended up being a good thing. We beat the heat and got quite a view of "golden hour" on our way up. Just incredible.
After we set up camp and made dinner, Becca climbed into the tent and I went to get a star shot of our campsite. That was when I first saw the light. A yellowy green and pink glow on my review screen. I looked at the sky. There were shafts of white light dancing in the sky and I yelled excitedly something like, "Becca! Look outside! Aurora!" I had never seen it before but by then I was sure it was what we were seeing. The intense part lasted a few minutes before fading back to a dull greenish glow. It was surreal to see the dancing light above the thick wildfire smoke.
We woke up before sunrise to see the sunrise over the lake, packing up our stove for coffee and oatmeal for breakfast at the lookout. There's nothing quite like savoring a cup of coffee barefooted while staring out over so many gorgeous peaks. We won't soon forget this hike.
