Hike of the Week: Twisp Pass

A brilliant display of colors can be expected at Twisp Pass in the autumn months

Twisp Pass

From Dagger Lake to Stiletto Peak-the views are sharp!




by Craig Romano
photo by Craig Romano
produced by Michael Fagin

October 27, 2006

Quick Facts
Location: Twisp River Valley-North Cascades
Land Agency: (US Forest Service and National Park Service) Okanogan National Forest and North Cascades National Park
Roundtrip: 9.0 miles
Elevation gain: 2,500 feet
Access: From Twisp follow Twisp River Road (FR 4400) 25 miles to trailhead.
Notes: Northwest Forest Pass required. Hunting season has begun, wear orange.


The east slope larch display is quickly fading along with the diminishing daylight hours. Snow has begun to blanket the high country and it won’t be long before our alpine haunts will have to wait until next summer for a romp. Twisp Pass in the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness in the Okanogan National Forest is a good choice for a final hurrah in the land of the golden conifers.
From the end of the Twisp River Road, the trail to the pass makes a fairly easy ascent-gaining 2,500 feet in 4.5 miles. Enjoy splendid views down the Twisp River Valley before turning your sights upward. The trail breaks out across open ledge granting nice perspectives of Twisp, Hock, and Crescent Mountains before cresting the pass.
Once at the pass, views are somewhat confined, so head out on an old but well defined trail that takes off northward into the highcountry. Traversing meadows and sub-alpine forests beneath Lincoln Butte, the trail marches on towards Stiletto Peak. The only thing more impressive than the growing views of the surrounding jagged North Cascades Peaks are the prolific larches clinging to steep slopes brushing them gold.
Continue all the way to the old Stiletto Peak Lookout site if ambition and daylight are on your side or quit in a quiet and remote basin just beneath Stiletto’s summit. And while the Stiletto high-county romp is the prime choice for explorations from Twisp Pass, Dagger Lake also cuts it. The quiet lake sits 600 feet below Twisp Pass and makes a good destination if the late-autumn weather is a tad bit fierce.