Securing the Permit
Similar to Glacier National Park you need to get a backcountry permit for North Cascades National Park. The permitting process is much less competitive in North Cascades because there are not nearly as many visitors (3.3M/year in Glacier and 30K/year in North Cascades). However, it’s still wise to be flexible with your plans and come prepared with a few route ideas.
There are a few different backcountry ranger offices that you can visit to get permits, but the main one is in Marblemount. It took us just shy of 2 hours to drive to Marblemount from where we were staying in Winthrop. Unlike in Glacier where we showed up at the Ranger Station at 6:00 am, an hour before it opened, we got to Marblemount at about 11:00 am, 2 hours after it opened. We weren’t as worried about getting permits and were really flexible with the route, plus we didn’t really want to wake up at 5:00 am.
We told the ranger a few of the different routes we were thinking about trying, our first choice being the Devil’s Dome Loop. Since most of that route takes place outside of the Park’s boundaries we really only needed a permit to camp at one site within the Park. Fortunately, the campground was available for the next night. Wahoo!
From what I’ve read it seems like most people hike the loop counterclockwise, but we signed up to do it clockwise. Doing it this way give us more flexibility with the miles we hike per day. We only need a permit for the first night in the Park and then will be in all dispersed camping areas for the rest of it.
You can read more about backcountry permits for North Cascades National Park here.
Devil’s Dome Loop Route
Devil’s Dome Loop is a 43-mile backpacking loop. The trail starts at the East Bank Trailhead. It goes north along Ross Lake then heads east up to Dry Creek Pass and Devil’s Pass. Afterwards it heads south along Jackita Ridge and ends at the Canyon Creek Trailhead.
Our goal was to finish in 3 days.
This is the best map I could find online.
Devil’s Dome Loop Day 1
Michael and I left our hotel around 8:00 am and stopped at Rocking Horse Bakery for a breakfast sandwich (they are so sooo good!!!). We drove to the trailhead and put on all of our gear. We started hiking just after 10:00 am. There was some slight confusion regarding where we actually started hiking and then ended up doing a 3-mile road walk from Canyon Creek Trailhead to East Back Trailhead. Not the most fun way to start out a hike, but I’d rather do it at the beginning than at the end!
We got through the road miles pretty quickly and then got on the real trail at 11:20 am. From here it was a 13-mile hike to our campsite at Devil’s Creek. The trail was nice rolling hills through forested area with tall, beautiful trees. The bonus of trails like this is that the path is covered in pine needles. It’s like walking on cushy carpet.
During the last few miles we were hiking right along Ross Lake.
We took small breaks here and there and made it to our campsite at 4:30 pm, just as some thunder was rolling in. Luckily, we got our tent sent up and filtered water before it started raining.
Normally we sleep in Michael’s Zpacks Duplex, but we decided to try out a free standing tent and got the Big Agnes Tiger Wall.
It didn’t rain too long or too hard. We waited for it to die down and then cooked up dinner and headed to bed.
Overall, the day’s 16-mile hike wasn’t too strenuous; however, 16 miles is 16 miles. That’s a lot for me at this point! I’m still pretty out of shape and was hiking with a full pack, so it felt challenging, but wasn’t the worst.
16 miles in 6.5 hours of hiking.
Devil’s Dome Loop Day 2
We woke up at 7:00 am so that we could get an earlier start on the day. The weather report said 92 degrees and we wanted to beat the heat.
We made breakfast, packed up our gear, and headed out on our way.
We wanted to hike around 16 miles again, so that we had a shorter day for our last day. We weren’t exactly sure what the terrain would look like aside from a big climb right away in the morning. We would be leaving North Cascades National Park and be entering the Pasayten Wilderness. We know longer needed permits for this area, which is nice because you can hike as much or as little as you want and don’t have to get to a specific campground. However, the downside is that you don’t actually know where all the campsites are, which can be tricky if you really want to stop and there isn’t a campsite near by.
As I mentioned we had a climb right away in the morning. I didn’t know how steep or how long we would be climbing, so I took it real slow. Maybe a little too slow, but I didn’t want to run out of gas an hour into our hike. The trail was very gradual switchbacks up through the forest.
While rounding up one of the switchbacks I heard a loud CRACK, like a tree branch breaking. I figured it was a bear. As opposed to backpacking in Glacier National Park there isn’t a huge grizzly population here that you need to worry about, so we weren’t doing any “hey bear” yelling. There are black bears though and when I rounded the corner and scanned each side of the trail I stared straight at one! He was in a tree hanging onto a branch. We looked at each other for a split second. I backed up to Michael and the bear slide down the tree like it was a fireman’s pole and ran down the slope a little bit. We watched him for a little bit to make sure he wasn’t going to charge us. I think he was just as scared as we were! It definitely added some excitement to the monotonous switchbacks.
I didn’t get a great picture. You can just barely see him through the trees.
At approximately mile 3 we hit a big stream and decided to take a snack and water break. We weren’t exactly sure where all our water sources were going to be, so we made sure to take advantage of anything we came across.
From here the trail was a little more flat. We were starting to get out of the trees and saw our first glimpses of Jack Mountain.
The Devil’s Dome loop basically circles Jack Mountain, so you get gorgeous views of it for most of the hike.
We found lots of ripe huckleberries along the trail. Michael couldn’t resist.
From here the trail started to get pretty steep and we climbed for another 4 miles. Oofdah. It was exhausting. We had climbed up about 4000 feet so far. It started to level out a bit, so we took our lunch break. From here we had really great views of Jack Mountain.
Looking at our map we only had a little more climbing left to do to get to the top of Devil’s Dome, the highest point of the hike, which is just to the right in the picture below.
The views from both sides of the pass were absolutely stunning.
And guess what?! After this it was downhill! Woohoo. We could finally start doing some faster mileage. We hiked down and along a ridge and went through some more forests and meadows. We took a break around mile 12 to take in some more water and calories.
At this point we wanted to hike about 4 more miles, give or take a bit depending on where we would find a campsite. We climbed up a little bit more and then started the gradually descending along a ridge where we came across a stream 2 miles later. We chugged some water and filtered some more.
From here is was directly downhill for about .5-miles. I seriously mean straight downhill. At the bottom we ran into 4 guys hiking the opposite direction. They told us about a nice campsite that was in a meadow near a stream and said it was up a little bit over a ridge and then down in the meadow about 2 miles away. Sounds perfect!
It was about 5:00 pm by this point. We figured 2 miles would take us about an hour. Then reality set in. When they said “up over a ridge” they failed to mention that it was STRAIGHT up over a ridge. It took us an entire hour to slowly climb that mile. Considering my legs already had 15 miles and 4000 feet of elevation gain on them didn’t make it any easier. It was almost comical how straight up the trail was. But we finally made it over and had a short bit to hike down before getting to the campsite in the meadow.
We rolled into camp at 6:30 pm. We set up the tent, grabbed some water from the creek, and started making dinner. As we were boiling the water we heard a bunch of loud noises, like big branches being broken. It was another black bear! Great. Just in time for dinner. He was up the slope from us about 100 yards rolling around dead trees looking for bugs. We yelled and him and made sure he saw us. He could have cared less. We continued to watch him as he went along his way away from our camp.
Two black bears in one day!
After dinner we hung up our food and toiletries (we didn’t want that black bear digging through our tent at night) and headed into bed.
I’m so proud of what my body accomplished! With all the miles and elevation gain it was not an easy day, but my body felt good the whole time and my spirits were high.
17 miles in 10 hours of hiking.
Devil’s Dome Loop Day 3
Our last day of hiking and only 10 miles to go!
We woke up around 7:30 am, packed up camp, ate breakfast, and hit the trail by 8:45 am.
The morning started with a bang. It was straight up over a short ridge, down slightly, and then straight up another pass. Again, I’m not kidding when I say “straight up”. We were walking up scree field that was so steep. It was like one step forward, half a step back since I was sliding back down the rock.
You can kind of make out the trail in the picture below. We started on the opposite side of the lower ridge to the left.
But then we got to the top and sat down to rest and take in this view.
From there it was a gradual downhill to Devil’s Park, where we spotted this old hunting shelter.
We walked through a meadow and then found ourselves back in the forest. It was 4 miles and 3300 feet down to the trailhead. There were a lot of switchbacks and those switchbacks were steep.
We basically hiked as fast as we could until we got to the car. It was hot and we were ready to be done.
And then we made it back to the car!
We also figured out how to get on the East Bank Trail for the Canyon Creek Trailhead. You follow the signs from the Canyon Creek Trailhead for the Jackita Ridge Trail. Once you cross the stream the second time (both via bridges) you take a left so that you are walking west along the stream. This will lead you to the East Bank Trailhead. OR you can road walk it.
10 miles in 5 hours and 15 minutes.
Devil’s Dome Loop Thoughts
We hiked 43 miles in 3 days. It was a doozy!
The exact mileage and elevation gains that I mention above are estimates. We didn’t use exact GPS maps, but used our best guess based off of the maps and the mileage on our phones. Everything should be within a mile.
The route itself was gradual hills to gradual switchbacks to steep switchbacks to the highest point. From there it was a gradual downhill to steep downhill to straight up to down to up to down to straight up to gradual down to straight down. So fun!
Despite all the reports I read about going counterclockwise I really enjoyed going clockwise. Either way, you’re doing big climbs and big downhills.
We seemed to hike Devil’s Dome Loop on the faster edge of the spectrum at 3 days. Most other groups we came across were planning 4-5 days. I suppose it’s a personal preference! You get all the miles and the views in either way.
It’s awesome to be able to do this type of stuff again. I thought my body would be so sore and worn out, especially after a 5-day backpacking loop in Glacier National Park a few days earlier; however, I felt so good. Don’t get me wrong, when I got back to the hotel after the trip I felt pretty stiff, but nothing too uncomfortable or unmanageable. I’ve just missed this all so much and am so excited to be doing some backpacking again!
Overall, I really enjoyed the Devil’s Dome backpacking loop. There are some difficult climbs and monotonous sections, but those views of Jack Mountain are entirely worth every bit of it. The pictures don’t do it justice at all. I was in awe of views with every single glance.
Now we are off to Colorado to hike the Four Pass Loop!
