Trip Report
Cascade Pass & Sahale Arm
Private two-night backpacking trip to Pelton Basin with a day hike to Sahale Arm and Doubtful Lake. A great itinerary to make a challenging hike more accessible for people who like to go a little slower.
Mckenzie Campbell Davies
- Sat, Jul 12, 2025 — Mon, Jul 14, 2025
- Cascade Pass & Sahale Arm
- Backpacking
- Successful
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- Road rough but passable
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The trail to Cascade Pass and up to Sahale Arm is in great shape. There were just a couple of inconsequential snow crossings. There is a great spot to refill water in the last few switchbacks before the pass. The Sahale Arm trail is fairly dry, but there is a great refill stream at about 6800'.
The trail down to Pelton Basin Camp is also in good shape, with evidence that some blowdowns have recently been removed.
The trail down to Doubtful Lake is seriously in need of brushing and benching (slanted downhill and eroding), making for rather slow travel both down and uphill. Despite some obstacles and being overgrown, the trail is easy enough to follow, and is certainly the path less taken.
With a short hiking day, we got a later start, which had some tradeoffs. NCNP is equipped to send people their reserved permits by email this year, if you can request it about 3 days in advance (at least three days or within three days is unclear - I receive conflicting information). Since we were going to drive right by, we elected to simply stop at the ranger station, which was beyond packed at 9:30AM on Saturday. After a 45 minute wait to speak with the ranger and print our permit, we were off again.
Cascade Pass trailhead was predictably full, but we packed our patience. Our drivers graciously dropped packs and passengers at the top and went back to park between .25 and .5 miles down the road.
We made it to camp by mid afternoon. Pelton Basin group camp and shared cooking area is fully melted out, but a large snow pile remains in at least one of the other sites. Campers in the non-group sites appeared to be able to fit 2+ tents without camping on snow.
Pelton Basin
We fit two 2p tents + five 1-p tents in the group site. There are some large and unafraid mule deer that meander through camp day and night, so food can never be left unattended. Mosquitoes are getting bad and seemed to be the worst in the afternoon and evening. Pelton Basin was unexpectedly beautiful - a worthwhile destination on it's own! There are bear boxes and a composting toilet at camp.
On Sunday we headed up to Sahale Arm and part of our group continued to Sahale Camp. There were goats around every corner, including many babies. They were unafraid of hikers, so we made sure to give them a wide berth when possible. WTA put out a great article about hiking in goat territory here.
Sahale Camp from Sahale Arm
On the way back down we decided to head down to Doubtful Lake for a cold plunge. Just before leaving the lake, we saw a bear with her cub on the shoreline. As we ascended back to the juncture we continued to see the bear playing in the meadow below us.
Mama bear with cub near Doubtful Lake
On Monday we woke to the clouds coming in, making for a cool and comfortable hike out.
Cascade Pass in the clouds