Big-ole Dayhike to Boulder Butte (7,400 ft)

Purple Pass/Boulder Butte
16 miles, 6,200 feet elevation gain and loss

Mountain Goat on Boulder Butte Summit

View all of the photos from this hike here.

I had kindof told myself all along on this trip that I would not subject myself to this kind of punishment, but some encouragement from a ranger and news that there were lots of Larch and fantastic 360-degree views changed my mind. This was a very arduous hike, but it was worth it. Fall is probably the best time to do this hike: I imagine the sun can be pretty scorching on the steep, dry slopes of Purple Creek in the summer.

I hit the trail at 6:30 by headlamp, although the full moon was supplying enough light that I could have gotten by without it. This trail gets right down to business—it basically doesn’t go anywhere but straight up out of Stehekin, switchbacking the whole way to Purple Pass. In about an hour I was at the Purple Creek crossing (2 miles), which is the last water on the route. I carried 3 liters: 2 would have been enough. (I’d take 4 in the summer.) There had been plenty of great views, a scenic moonset, and I was making a good pace for uphill: things were going pretty well. The trail is pretty gently graded, although the terrain is super steep.

Above Purple Creek, the views steadily grow, but so does the awareness that you’re on a very arduous climb with a long way to go. This is the part of the trail where you really need to hunker down. Almost the whole route is through forests affected by the Flick Creek fire a couple years ago.

A couple miles below the pass, I hit snow, larch and fantastic rocky parkland. Unfortunately, it was also very cold: the slope is so steep here that it receives no morning sun. The snow was only an inch deep, with the tracks of every kind of critter around (except humans). I never even put my gaiters on.

I reached the pass a little before 11:00, where I took a well deserved break for a few minutes. The views are spectacular: down to Lake Chelan, up to the wild peaks of the North Cascades, over to the larch and snow parkland of upper Fourmile Creek Basin and Lake Juanita.

As I took off for the last half mile to Boulder Butte, the scenery steadily dazzled and the snow grew a little deeper, but never more than about 3-4 inches. The trail was steep and there was just enough snow that a couple places were a little ticklish.

I pulled up onto Boulder Butte at 11:30 and parked for photos and lunch. It was quite brisk but the breeze was still and the sun was welcome, so it was a pretty comfortable summit. I lingered for about 45 minutes, until a breeze started to blow and it got a little chilly. The views were amazing: sweeping panoramas in every direction: west to Castle Rock and Tupshin, North to an ocean of rugged ice-clad peaks, east down War Creek toward the Columbia Valley, Southeast down the chelan/sawtooth summit, south to Mt. Rainier in the distance, southwest to Lake Chelan and the peaks of the Chelan crest.

I had been here quite some time before I noticed the sheer cliff north face of boulder butte. Of course, I did what most any guy would do: stood really close to the precipice and peed off it.

The descent was uneventful and long.

5 hours up, 3.5 hours down, 45 minutes on the summit.