Jade Lake & Marmot Lake

31.5 miles of hiking • 8750' elevation gain • 1 night

I found this hike by accident while browsing the internet for a different Marmot Lake (in ONP). A little bit longer of a drive than I wanted (about an hour outside of Seattle)—but it looked interesting, so I thought I'd check it out. It seems that many discount the hikes around the Stevens Pass/Snoqualmie Pass area, but this turned out to be a great one.

I started from the trailhead across from Deception Falls on Stevens Pass, about 2 miles outside of Snokomish. The trail climbs through the forest for about 10 miles, and strikes me of a cross between Siouxon Creek and the hike up to Larch Mountain. After hitting about the 3500' mark, the terrain becomes more sub-alpiney.

Once you pass the trail that breaks off to Deception Lakes and the PCT, the trail enters a shaded meadowy section, eventually reaching Deception pass. At Deception Pass there are nice open meadows and views of the mountains in the distance. There were several Stellar Jays and Grey Jays around.

I started this hike super late (1:30p), and with Jade Lake as my destination about 15 miles away, I soon realized I was going to run out of daylight. On the map, the elevation gain looks steady, but I'd estimate there is almost 1000' of extra undulation just to get to Deception Pass.

Once reaching the pass, the trail continued through bright-red brush and past a small lake in a large cirque. As I hit this lake at dusk, I thought about camping there, but there were no established spots, and it was rock city, so I decided to continue on.

The trail then loses 800' and climbs 1000' to Marmot Lake. By the time I reached Marmot Lake it was 7:15 and dark. I donned the headlamp, set up the tent, and made dinner. By 9:00, it was bedtime.

The next morning, after some Via and granola bars, I got moving around 9:30. To reach Jade lake, there is a well-worn use path along the side of Marmot Lake, which crosses several smaller boulder fields and eventually leads to a larger boulder field that takes you halfway up to the lake. Once halfway, there is a dirt path, which is a nice relief from the scrambling. The path led through more fire-red brush, up to No Name lake. I pulled out the Tenkara rod and did some quick fishing at No Name—the little guys were pretty stunted with the shallow water.

The path then leads over the hill to Jade lake. Wow—this lake is something else. Truly blue colored, and bigger than I expected. Across the lake is a glacier which leads to Diptop Gap, which I've read is a great view in its own right—but time and no ice ax ruled it out—it probably would have been another 3+ hours to get around the boulders on the lake and to get up the pass.

Short on time, I headed back down to Marmot Lake, and then back down to the car. All in all, this was a great little 28 hour trip. I'd recommend starting from a closer trail head—either from FS 6830 or from the south (I read the road is bad)—to shave off a little of the climbing. A nice fall destination.