There are very few places I would want to visit after just having a baby, but the North Cascades have always felt like our home away from home. From our first child to our last child we have visited the North Cascades shortly after their births and have made it a point to return biannually. Whether you have children or not Sun Mountain Lodge is a great jumping off point for exploring the North Cascades. If you like to hike, explore small towns, sit by a roaring fire or do a combination of both you really cannot go wrong with Sun Mountain Lodge. Fall and Winter are historically our favorite times to visit the area, but I assure you it is beautiful here all year long.

During our stay we were able to take Daphne on her first hike and spend some quality time making memories with our new addition. With the arrival of each of our children it has been adjustment yet at the same time has felt like we have always known and loved them. One of the most exciting parts of having a new addition is thinking about all the special places we have yet to introduce Daphne to. It seemed very fitting the North Cascades was her first family trip.

We visited Sun Mountain Lodge at the beginning of October and it was the perfect time to visit before the temperatures dropped and snow crept down to the lower elevations. However, after witnessing the snow dusted mountain peaks I felt very excited for Winter and all the beauty, wonder and stillness it brings.

One of our favorite hikes is Cutthroat Pass. However, after just having a baby I was not cleared to exercise that much yet. The shorter hike to Cutthroat Lake has minimal elevation gain, a show stopping reward at the end and is just perfect for Jasper to hike on his own.

If you go mid week you can almost count on having the place to yourselves. We enjoyed a few snacks at the lake and I got my first opportunity to breastfeed “in the wild”.

After a day of exploring it was nice to be able to come back to the lodge to relax and recharge. We appreciated the convenience of having easy access to breakfast before we headed out in the morning and only a short walk back to our room after dinner.

At Sun Mountain Lodge there are plenty of things to do on property from a game room, a reading nook and even a big screen television where we were able to watch the Seahawks game with a handful of other fans. This time we visited mid week because Cameron was still on paternity leave and we thoroughly appreciated the quietness weekday travel brings.

When you travel with kids it is essential for them to have a place to run around and play (supervised of course) without being a disturbance to other guests and the variety of trails adjacent to the lodge is just perfect for getting out some pent up energy.