The view off the end of a switchback on the Sauk trail includes the confluence of the Skagit & Sauk Rivers. The Skagit has been cleared of glacial silt by running it through three great settling ponds, in the form of Ross, Diablo, and Gorge Lakes.
The Sauk River has no lakes and still carries silt from mountains to the south. In late summer the
Chocolate Glacier on
Glacier Peak sometimes slips and dumps a load of silt that turns the Sauk a muddy brown.