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Blanca Lake is a great hike to a great destination with an unfortunate couple of streams crossing the forest service road leading to the trailhead that keeps washing the road out.
You reach the trailhead by taking Highway 2 to Beckler River Road, just past Skykomish, and then stay on the main road over Jack Pass to FR63. FR63 was closed for a number of years due to two major road washes that destroyed several hundred feet of the road. It wasn’t a huge issue, it just meant you had to add four or five miles for a road walk in addition to the almost 8 mile hike. They finally repaired both washouts about three years ago but over this winter the first bridge was washed out again and took out about 300 feet of the road. They haven’t closed the road yet so although you can’t drive all the way to the trailhead, at least the road walk is only about 1/3 mile, which isn’t so bad.
The real problem isn’t the Blanca Lake trailhead. The real problem is that FR63 continues on for another three or four miles and ends at the North Fork Skykomish Trailhead. This is actually the trailhead for three different trails, West Cady Ridge, North Fork Skykomish and Quartz Creek. These three trails are fantastic for creating two or three (or more) day backpacking loops with tons of fantastic views. Having to add seven or eight miles is no fun. We’ll see how long it takes them to repair the road again but based on history I’d guess it won’t be anytime in the next couple of years.
Anyway, this isn’t about road access, it’s about the hike to Blanca Lake. The Blanca Lake trail is in great shape with just a few blow-downs across the trail. True to form for hikes in the North Cascades you start going up as soon as you leave the parking lot and never really stop. Kind of. At about the three mile mark you’ll reach a kind of plateau with a small tarn called Virgin Lake.
At this point you’ll be feeling pretty good about how you finally made it, but the reality is from this point you have to drop down ~600 feet in the next 1/2 mile to actually get to Blanca Lake. That’s when you realize you’re going to have to climb back up out of there on your way back.
Don’t be discouraged though. The main lake is worth the effort. At this point in the year the lake was still mostly covered with ice but you can get a glimpse of the water where the outflow of the lake is. The lake’s turquoise green color comes from the silt-filled meltwater of the Columbia Glacier, located on the far side of the lake. It’s one of the more unique lakes in the region and I can’t say I’ve seen any others with this particular coloring. It’s quite striking in person.
So, a very nice hike. Total mileage for the day was a little less than nine miles and over 3,600 feet of elevation gain.
