It's hard to see in the picture, but at the tippy-top of the peak on the left is the lookout tower.
After 2 hours of hiking, I crested a little ridge to see this: But the trail vegetation changed from thick, green undergrowth to a subalpine wonderland of vibrant pink heather, blueberry bushes (sans blueberries), and tiny mountain hemlock. You can also see the trail zig-zagging down the slope. The picture below shows the view to the west with Mt. The higher I got, the better the views became. Indian Paintbrush blooming along the trail After that, the trail breaks out of the trees and it's all sun all the way to the top. The cool shade of the forest only lasts for about a mile. The trail starts out in thick forest with lots of little streams to hop over. Subie and I made it to the trailhead just fine. The road is only 4.5 miles long, but it took me quite some time to maneuver around all the obstacles without injuring Subie.
There are a few sections getting washed out and many blind hairpin turns. It's steep in places, rocky in places, and narrow in almost all places with hardly any pullouts should you encounter a car coming the opposite direction. The Forest Road leading to the trail is one of the roughest I've ever been on. Even getting to the trailhead is a bit of a challenge. Getting to the Lookout is no easy task, though.
Since then, the Skagit Alpine Club and Friends of Hidden Lake Lookout have maintained the structure, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Built in 1932, the Hidden Lake Lookout was used to spot fires until the 1950s. Yesterday's Hike-A-Thon hike found me venturing up the North Cascades Highway to climb to a decommissioned fire lookout.
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