Crescent Saddle Cabin

Beautiful spot! Almost no firewood as of Dec. 28, 2023, and it is nearly impossible to find any downed wood due to the snow.

We always cut a lot of extra wood when at huts outside of winter for this reason! If snowmachining in would recommend taking some wood.

Beautiful spot! Almost no firewood as of Dec. 28, 2023, and it is nearly impossible to find any downed wood due to the snow.

We always cut a lot of extra wood when at huts outside of winter for this reason! If snowmachining in would recommend taking some wood.

The cabin is beautiful, but very difficult to find via the trail from Crescent Creek. The wood stove is amazing!

The cabin is beautiful, but very difficult to find via the trail from Crescent Creek. The wood stove is amazing!

We hiked to the cabin on 6-29 and hiked out on 6-30 from the carter lake side. It took us around 5 hours to get out to it and 4 hours to return. Conditions once you hit the primitive trail were honestly pretty decent all things considered- muddy, slick, and wet (as expected) but other than that not super overgrown to the point where you need to bushwhack. There’s a decent size creek crossing once you start the primitive trail and you’ll cross a waterfall-like creek once you are around two miles from the cabin. There are two snowpacks you’ll need to cross- i recommend bringing boot spikes if you hike in from this side in the next few weeks. We didn’t bring them and it was overall fine (i slid a little down one of the chutes but it was ok in the end lmao) but since the snow has been sitting out in the sun it’s pretty slick and on a steep grade. But if you’re good at walking on that kind of stuff you don’t have to worry about it. But yeah. Best forest service cabin i’ve been to. Seriously. It’s the prettiest one for sure. The views are unbelievable. We caught some grayling while out there. As of our stay, the boat is there (read some other reviews that it was unfortunately missing for other peoples stays). Hell yeah!

We hiked to the cabin on 6-29 and hiked out on 6-30 from the carter lake side. It took us around 5 hours to get out to it and 4 hours to return. Conditions once you hit the primitive trail were honestly pretty decent all things considered- muddy, slick, and wet (as expected) but other than that not super overgrown to the point where you need to bushwhack. There’s a decent size creek crossing once you start the primitive trail and you’ll cross a waterfall-like creek once you are around two miles from the cabin. There are two snowpacks you’ll need to cross- i recommend bringing boot spikes if you hike in from this side in the next few weeks. We didn’t bring them and it was overall fine (i slid a little down one of the chutes but it was ok in the end lmao) but since the snow has been sitting out in the sun it’s pretty slick and on a steep grade. But if you’re good at walking on that kind of stuff you don’t have to worry about it. But yeah. Best forest service cabin i’ve been to. Seriously. It’s the prettiest one for sure. The views are unbelievable. We caught some grayling while out there. As of our stay, the boat is there (read some other reviews that it was unfortunately missing for other peoples stays). Hell yeah!

TL:DR - if you go in April or May, you may get stopped by avalanches and you will 100% need skis, not snowshoes. Definitely go from the crescent lake side, not carter lake.
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Seeing the review about bad snow conditions, we brought snow shoes and went over a week earlier in May than the other reviewer. Same problem but the lake was mostly still frozen. We passed the people who stayed there the night before who suggested we walk on the melting lake (yeah no). The Carter Lake side is basically impassible in May. We made it 5.5 miles (1 mile from the cabin) and the entire side was blocked top to bottom with an avalanche. That was 9 HOURS into our hike so we slept under a tree about mile 5. Burned from the sun reflection day 1; ripping winds and drizzle day 2. Heard the cabin is nice though and the stove is apparently awesome. We will be back one day when there is no snow.

TL:DR - if you go in April or May, you may get stopped by avalanches and you will 100% need skis, not snowshoes. Definitely go from the crescent lake side, not carter lake.
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Seeing the review about bad snow conditions, we brought snow shoes and went over a week earlier in May than the other reviewer. Same problem but the lake was mostly still frozen. We passed the people who stayed there the night before who suggested we walk on the melting lake (yeah no). The Carter Lake side is basically impassible in May. We made it 5.5 miles (1 mile from the cabin) and the entire side was blocked top to bottom with an avalanche. That was 9 HOURS into our hike so we slept under a tree about mile 5. Burned from the sun reflection day 1; ripping winds and drizzle day 2. Heard the cabin is nice though and the stove is apparently awesome. We will be back one day when there is no snow.

The boat is always missing. Hiking 11 miles to a cabin that is advertised as having a boat and then finding it gone kind of ruins a fishing trip. Reading the guest log, this is an ongoing issue for years now. Won’t be returning.

The boat is always missing. Hiking 11 miles to a cabin that is advertised as having a boat and then finding it gone kind of ruins a fishing trip. Reading the guest log, this is an ongoing issue for years now. Won’t be returning.