If you’re local to the pacific northwest and make the occasional appearance on the mountain, then you may have already hiked the Skyline Divide trail. If not, put it on your to-do list.

The trailhead is 12 miles down a long, unpaved, pothole filled road. The hike starts out on the more challenging side and then begins to level out to a gradual incline. I am not the biggest fan of hiking so I found this hike to be mildly challenging. But then the trees break, and this is what you see:

You can relax, eat, and explore the surrounding area and consider this the “top” or you can continue along the ridge line heading towards Mt. Baker (like I did). The view gets even more beautiful and pictures certainly do not do it justice.

The ridge line continues all the way to the base of Mt. Baker which is about 9-miles total. I only chose to do 3 of them before heading back down the trail. Once we got to the base and headed back down the gravel road, we found an awesome little river spot that would be perfect for camping. 

So get outside and hit the trails on your next sunny day off.