Weekend Trip to Seattle

by admin

Late September 2025, I made a weekend trip to Seattle to visit some friends and nature. This post would be about the two day hikes that I embarked on, together with the flights back and forth.

Mountains and Glaciers across Skagit River

Ticketing

Sometime in May 2025, American Airlines launched an award sale offering select domestic itineraries at a mere 5k miles one-way. I seized the opportunity to rebook my flights for the California trip earlier this month, a journey planned well in advance after winning the Half Dome lottery. But with such an attractive promotion at hand, I found myself exploring other destinations for September travel. That’s when Seattle caught my eye: a chance to reconnect with old friends and explore the Pacific Northwest’s outdoors during its most vibrant foliage season.

American Airlines Flight 1505 and 751 from Boston to Seattle via Charlotte

Unfortunately, my journey began on an inauspicious note when I discovered I had left my earphones behind on the subway to the airport. This condemned me to endure the tedium of all 4 flight segments for this trip.

American Airlines 1505
Boston, MA (BOS) – Charlotte, NA (CLT)
Airbus 321 (N922US)
Seat 16F
Scheduled Departure – 2:05pm
Actual Departure – 2:13pm
Scheduled Arrival – 4:40pm
Actual Arrival – 4:07pm
1 hour and 54 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

The first leg to Charlotte went without a hitch (apart from the boredom). Technically, I only had a 38-minute connection in Charlotte, but our early arrival afforded me sufficient time to grab some dinner at the airport. (Somehow, all 4 flights of this trip were very elite-heavy, and I wasn’t upgraded for any of them).

American Airlines 751
Charlotte, NA (CLT) – Seattle, WA (SEA)
Airbus 321 (N173US)
Seat 9A
Scheduled Departure – 5:18pm
Actual Departure – 5:33pm
Scheduled Arrival – 7:59pm
Actual Arrival – 7:32pm
4 hours and 59 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

For the next leg to Seattle, despite I wasn’t upgraded, I found an empty middle seat next to me to partially make up for it.

Along the way, I caught a few glimpses of the imposing mountains in Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton Peak over Jenny Lake
Teton Range
Mt Moran

Additionally, the sight of Mt Rainier never disappointed me every time I flew into Seattle, especially paired with the golden streak of sunset glow over the horizon.

Columbia River
Mt Rainier
Mt Rainier
Mt Rainier
Overlooking Seattle Airport and Industrial Complexes
Seattle between Lake Washington and Puget Sound

Overlooking Wildcat Fire

Unbeknownst, my hike of Maple Pass would be significantly hampered by the wildfires burning in the Cascades.

Upon landing, I learned this flight from Charlotte to Seattle had cabin crew based in Dallas, and flight crew based in Charlotte and Chicago, a peculiar mixture.

Unfortunately, I was soon to experience the woefully inadequate performance of American Airlines’ ground crew at Seattle.
To begin with, our gate remained occupied by a heavily delayed Phoenix flight (AA6452), which meant we didn’t park until 8:03pm, more than 30 minutes after touchdown. (American Airlines, being a minority carrier at Seattle, had no alternative gates available.) Next, it took another 30 minutes for the first checked bag to appear at the carousel, and 37 minutes until mine arrived. (I confess I had been spoiled by their remarkably efficient crew in Boston.)

Sept 27: Hike of Trappers Peak

For Saturday, September 27, I decided to check out Trappers Peak, a peak in North Cascades National Park with one of the best view-to-effort ratios in the region. On paper, the route was a 15.9km out-and-back with 1050m of elevation gain (10mi, 3440ft), a typical day hike by my standards.

The final 5 miles of the road before Thornton Lakes Trailhead was unpaved, with occasional deep ruts that demanded reasonable clearance (a Toyota RAV4, for instance). If I own a sedan (like, Toyota Camry), I wouldn’t drive it there. Parking was limited at the trailhead, and many cars opted to parallel park along the access road as overflow (mine included). There was an outhouse at the trailhead.

Here’s GPS tracking:

I started my hike just after 11am. The first 3.3km (2 miles) of trail traced a V-shaped course around Thornton Creek. Apart from a few rocky interruptions, this part of the trail was wide and even, to the point that one could almost ride a mountain bike through it.

Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail
Footbridge over Thornton Creek
Trail
Trail
Trail

Beyond that point, the trail embarked on a steady climb, weaving through soaring trees in a typical Pacific Northwest rainforest fashion. It was narrower, frequently interrupted by tree roots and rocks, but overall not technical.

Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail
The only short muddy section.
Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail

Later, the trail reached an intersection where the paths to Thornton Lakes and Trappers Peak diverged. It roughly marked the point where trees along the trail began to thin, yielding glimpses of the surrounding vistas.

Trail Intersection
The path to Trappers Peak to the right, the path to Thornton Lakes to the left.
Mountains to the Southeast
Trail
Mountains across Skagit River
Trail to Trappers Peak followed the small hill in the foreground.
Trail

Between the trail junction and Trappers Peak lay the most technical section of the route (slideshow below), requiring scrambling efforts to scale a steep rocky slope, which I would rate as YDS Class 3.

Steep Trail
Steep Trail
Steep Trail
Steep Trail
Steep Trail

Shortly before the summit, I was already rewarded with views of various mountains and glaciers around.

Mountains to the East
Terror Glacier
Mountains to the Southeast

The sight of Trappers Peak had been in front of me for much of the entire route since leaving the trail junction. At its doorstep, a final steep section awaited (p5 below), where the trail dissolved among scattered rocks and alpine shrubs. Here, it seemed, one could simply choose one’s own path to the summit that lay just ahead.

Trappers Peak
Trappers Peak
Trail to Trappers Peak
Trappers Peak
Steep Trail

Trappers Peak Summit

Finally, I reached the summit of Trappers Peak precisely at 2pm. To my delight, there was cellular coverage on Trappers Peak.

From the summit, the most arresting views lay to the north, where a ridgeline unfurled toward a succession of distant peaks. I found it particularly appealing that the peaks featured various shades of grey, almost covering the entire spectrum from white to black, rendered all the more somber underneath an overcast sky. In the foreground and at lower elevations, scattered patches of grass and shrub offered welcome traces of life, their colors grown vibrant with the approach of autumn.

Mountains to the North
Thornton Lakes
Mountains to the North
Mountains Surrounding Thornton Lakes
Pioneer Peak
Mt Despair
Mt Triumph
Upper Thornton Lakes
Middle Thornton Lakes

Looking back across the Skagit River, an array of glaciers lay nestled deep within the mountains, and Trappers Peak proved an excellent vantage point from which to observe them.

Mountains across Skagit River
Mountains across Skagit River
Neve Glacier
Distant Glaciers to the Southeast
Distant Mountains to the Southwest
Distant glaciers on Three Fingers and Whitehorse Mountain.

Towards the north/northeast, the southern part of Picket Range was obscured by clouds, concealing their jagged summits and only revealing a portion of Terror Glacier below.

Mountains to the North
Mountains and Glaciers to the North
Mountains to the Northeast
Mountains to the North
Mountains to the East

View from Trappers Peak

Here’s a video I took on Trappers Peak:

16 seconds, 2160p60fps, H265 only, 20Mbps/24MB file size.

On most sides, the summit of Trappers Peak offered little in the way of dramatic prominence, which naturally invited visitors to wander about in search of unobstructed vistas from different angles. Consequently, I lingered atop Trappers Peak for nearly an hour before beginning my descent just before 3pm.

To the west of Trappers Peak was a series of Alpine Lakes (Thornton Lakes). Instead of the summit, I found a few spots along the trail that offered better views of these crystalline waters.

Mountains across Skagit River
Lower Thornton Lakes in the lower-right.
Thornton Lakes
Lower Thornton Lakes
Mountains beyond Thornton Lakes

The rest of my descent wasn’t very eventful, save for one moment when I lost the trail and had to bushwhack my way back to it. With a largely leisurely pace, I got back to my car at 5:45pm.

Sept 28: Hike of Maple Pass Loop

The next day, Sunday September 28, some of my friends from the Seattle area would join me on a hike. To accommodate everyone’s fitness levels, we settled on Maple Pass Trail, one of Washington State’s most popular trails. In terms of both distance and elevation gain, it measured roughly 2/3 of the Trappers Peak trail I had hiked the previous day.

I was aware that Lower Sugarloaf fire was burning near Leavenworth during the weekend of my visit. When I checked the air quality forecast Friday night, it showed the Maple Pass area largely unaffected. My hike up Trappers Peak the day before, unmarred by poor air quality, only reinforced my confidence that Maple Pass would be similarly clear.
Unfortunately, reality proved drastically different. While the air felt perfectly clear around Diablo Lake / Ross Lake, it was very hazy 25 miles later at Rainy Pass, the trailhead for our hike, by which time, it was too late for us to bail out. Ironically, my trip to Half Dome earlier this month was also amid dense wildfire haze, it just seemed I never had good luck with air pollution this month.

Here’s GPS tracking:

Parly to accommodate other members of our party, partly because I didn’t want to overexert myself amid the air pollution, I paused more often that I typically would, especially between the trailhead and Maple Pass.

This was a loop trail and we hiked it in the counter-clockwise direction. In my opinion, however, neither direction held any particular advantage.

Trail

Like many trails in the region, this hike started out as a typical walk in the woods. But that didn’t last too long. After diverging from the trail to Lake Ann, the trees soon grew sparse.

Trail through Vibrant Fields

True to its “maple” name, once we emerged above the tree line, vibrant autumn hues adorned the shrubs along the entire trail, including large patches of red that was completely absent from my hike to Trappers Peak the day prior. Unfortunately, the hazy air seemed to cast a veil of dust over my photographs. I could only imagine how vivid the colors would have appeared beneath a bright blue sky.

Fields Dressed in Autumn Colors
Fields Dressed in Autumn Colors
Trail
Trail through Vibrant Fields
Trail
Trail through Vibrant Fields
Trail through Vibrant Fields

The entire Maple Pass Trail traced a giant circle around Lake Ann, revealing its views from ever-shifting vantage points. At various spots along the path, the surrounding peaks came into view (at Heather Pass p2-3 and Maple Pass p6-7 below), yet even my best efforts in Photoshop could not resurrect the mountains’ true grandeur from beneath that veil of haze.

Lake Ann
Mountains beyond Heather Pass
Black Peak
Overlooking Lake Ann
Overlooking Lake Ann
Horsefly Pass
Corteo Peak

At the loop’s highest elevation (roughly its southernmost point), a short spur branched off toward an overlook that offered what was, in my opinion, the finest view of the entire circuit. Yet once again, regrettably, the haze conspired to diminish its splendor.

Hill over Lake Ann
Hills around Lake Ann
Hills around Lake Ann
Hillside Plants in Autumn Colors
Lake Ann
Hill

After that, we started our descent. Unlike our ascent which accompanied views of Lake Ann, there were few notable views above the tree line on our way down.

Fields Dressed in Autumn Colors
Fields Dressed in Autumn Colors
Trail
Glimpse of Rainy Lake

But once below the tree line, the forest seemed to awaken—more vibrant, more inviting. By contrast, the woods we had passed through during our ascent had felt muted and remote.

Lone Pine Tree
Trail
Overlooking Rainy Pass
Trees along Trail
Trail
Trail

Trees along Trail
I liked the color variations in this shot, and the shape of the withered tree branches.
Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail

In the end, including all rests, we finished the hike in 4.5 hours. Given the air pollution, I was glad it wasn’t longer.

With enough daylight remaining, and hoping to salvage the day by catching some views less obscured by haze, we made several stops on our way back to Seattle.
Our first stop was Diablo Lake Vista Point. The afternoon light wasn’t ideal for this particular vista point, and September—with its minimal snow cover on the surrounding peaks—was likely the least dramatic month to visit. Nonetheless, we appreciated the clear views it offered us.

Diablo Lake
Davis Peak over Diablo Lake
Davis Peak
Mountains over Thunder Arm
Colonial Peak
Paul Bunyans Stump and Pinnacle Peak

Next, we made another stop to check out “Gorge Overlook Trail”. This short trail overlooked “Gorge Dam”, a dam spanning the Skagit River, but the views were somewhat obstructed and underwhelming. Instead, we found “Gorge Creek” across the road far more captivating—though by September, its waters had dwindled to a modest trickle.

Gorge Creek

American Airlines Flight 1095 and 1467 from Seattle to Boston via Philadelphia

Fast forward to the evening of Monday, September 29. After reconnecting with a few friends over the weekend, it’s time for me to fly back to Boston.
It turned out that Seattle Airport funneled both airline elites and Spot Savers through the same security kiosk. (I had never been fond of the latter program, whose sole purpose seemed to be shifting the blame for security wait times onto travelers, rather than addressing the fundamental issue of understaffed and poorly designed checkpoints.) Even so, clearing security at 8pm on a Monday evening took me 15 minutes. Not impressed.

For this flight, it was a bit unfortunate that I was 3/6 on the upgrade list, and there were 2 first class seats available.

American Airlines 1095
Seattle, WA (SEA) – Philadelphia, PA (PHL)
Airbus 321 (N929AA)
Seat 8A
Scheduled Departure – 11:05pm
Actual Departure – 11:18pm
Scheduled Arrival – 7:09am + 1
Actual Arrival – 7:01am + 1
4 hours and 43 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

Overlooking Seattle Suburb at Night
Philadelphia Suburb at Dawn
Flying over Delaware River during final approach.

The flight itself wasn’t very remarkable as I slept through most of it. Interestingly, the cabin crew didn’t turn on the lights for landing preparation until 6:48am, 13 minutes before touchdown. (One could hardly ask for a more considerate gesture toward preserving our sleep.)

For my final flight back to Boston, this A321neo had more than a quarter (>50) of empty seats, but was also very elite-heavy (I was 7/42 on the upgrade list). Pushback was delayed, followed by a 20-minute wait in Philadelphia Airport’s morning departure queue.
I had hoped to catch some sleep on this brief flight; unfortunately, a loud and annoying child seated nearby made that impossible.

American Airlines 1467
Philadelphia, PA (PHL) – Boston, MA (BOS)
Airbus 321neo (N412UW)
Seat 19F
Scheduled Departure – 8:45am
Actual Departure – 9:22am
Scheduled Arrival – 10:10am
Actual Arrival – 10:10am
48 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

After landing in Boston, this time my checked bag beat me to the carousel, a stark contrast to Seattle’s lengthy wait, which concluded this brief trip to Seattle.
END

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Category: Flight Log, Hiking, Travel Tags: American Airlines, North Cascades National Park, Okanogan National Forest

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