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Category Archives: North Cascades

A Better Day for Us

As the Cougar Flats fire began to explode I was high in the mountains with my friend Mary from Montana. The weather was hot that week – 100 plus degress so we were anxious to get someplace cooler. We packed a little lunch for us and the dogs and headed to Harts Pass. Indeed, it was a glorious day in high country and we were lucky to enjoy it.

We started out on the Buckskin trail descending into the basin below Slate Peak
How to get a Labrador retriever’s attention
Hey – did Gus get a cookie?
My, what a big tongue you have Luna
Tiny bubbles in the creek
Smoke on the horizon down valley
Glacier lily
Pretty white flower that looks like miniature bear grass next to shooting stars
Two women and three dogs with a self timer? That was a challenge!
Mary and the Labradors!
She found a rock that looked like her home state of Montana
Mount Baker
Gus was insistent on trying to climb the stairs despite the sign that specifically said not to.
The smoke grew as the day went by
The Pasayten Wilderness looking north to Alaska
North Cascades
Silky Phacelia
Maybe my favorite wildflower

A Short Jaunt on the PCT

Every summer I try to get up to the Harts Pass area as early as possible to catch the start of high mountain wildflowers. I have to wait til the road is open and passable. There are always new washouts over the winter and the Forest Service works hard to get it open for use. Hot weather has settled into the valley so it was a great relief to get up high and enjoy the cooler mountain air and sweet little creeks flowing with melted snow. The dogs were excited to be in snow too! The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) crosses through this region and can be accessed at several trailheads. We picked the one that goes generally south towards Grasshopper Pass from near the Meadows campground. It was a good choice with a cool breeze and enough water to keep the dogs hydrated and snow to cool their feet and bellies. The snow and water won’t last long with this hot weather. It’s too early for the through hikers to be here – they are the ones that start at the Mexican border and walk all the way to Canada. We had the trail almost all to ourselves except for the marmots, pikas and ground squirrels. We saw only three other day hikers. The wildflowers were over the top beautiful!

The trail starts out across this big talus slope
Happy hiker
Happy dogs
Slate Peak lookout can be seen on the far left
Anemone occidentalis or western pasqueflower
Western pasqueflower
Phlox and pasqueflower
Buttercup
Walking on the PCT towards Grasshopper Pass
The meadows really are that green!
Cairn
What is Luna thinking about now?
Pack with a view
Inukshuk
Antennaria rosea
Tiny bell-shaped flowers of heather
Jacob’s ladder, Polemonium sp.
the heart of the North Cascades
Shooting stars
Lewisia columbiana
I like Lewisia
There was lots of Lewisia!
Oh look – Sky found a stick!
How many kinds of plants?
Silver snags from an old forest fire
Silky phacelia
Jacob’s ladder
The snow is soft
Alpine larch trees with their fresh green leaves
Ballhead waterleaf
Frida enjoys a cool creek after the hike

Above the Clouds

This week the valley has been mostly enshrouded in thick cold ice fog. Thanks to abundant web cams I figured out that up on the Loup (Loup Loup Pass) there was sunshine and twice I went up there to escape the fog. Not only was it sunny but the trails are not icy like they are in valley and the low lying-hills. That is because we have been under the effect of a weather inversion. This means that high pressure and warmer air are trapping the fog and cold air down in the valley and it is warmer as you go higher in elevation.

This is one goofy winter.

On this day the fog layer was not as thick.
Here the fog is much thicker.
Oval Peak. I don’t know why it’s called Oval.
Mount Gardner

Frozen Rainy Lake

Once winter really settles in, the passes out of the valley to the west are closed to traffic and we find ourselves near ‘the end of the road’. So far this year, we haven’t had too much snow but it has been cold enough to freeze many of the lakes. On Sunday we took the drive up to Rainy Pass and walked through the snow to frozen Rainy Lake. Ken took his ice skates and I carried my cameras and we took the dogs too. Of course. It was mid-afternoon by the time we got up there and the sun had dropped behind the North Cascades but it was warmer up high than down here in the valley. This is a weather inversion and has caused a bit of air pollution in some places. It was a fun walk and Sky’s first real experience with snow! Nothing seems to slow her down. We did try to keep her from going to far off-trail for fear she would get stuck and we’d have to rescue her. The ice was pretty rough for skating and Ken thought it might be a little soft too but he gave it a try. The dogs loved running on it and I just tried to keep them all away from each other. Walking back to the car, the alpenglow light on the high peaks was amazing.

We are ever so grateful to live in this beautiful place.

Frozen creek along the trail
Frozen Rainy Lake
Ice skating
Portrait of Sky
Looking west on the highway
Alpenglow
Last of the light
Looking towards the big switchback below Washington Pass

Slate Peak

Friends are visiting from Iowa this week and we are busy showing them the highlights of the valley and Ken is trying to take Paul to all the great fishing spots, despite the fact that steelhead season didn’t open when they thought it might. Little trout from streams and big trout in lakes will have to suffice for this visit. Yesterday we drove to Slate Peak and hiked around the basin below it and enjoyed the fall colors and migrating raptors. We saw Rough-legged Hawk, Prairie Falcon, Northern Harriers and some unidentified accipitor. Later the guys caught small trout in a beautiful mountain stream while Corly and I went to see spawaning chinook salmon in the Methow River. It was a lovely day.

 

Luna is practicing on the edge of Slate Peak for her upcoming agility trial

 

The last of the blue sky days

 

Smoke from the lingering wildfires creates some hazy conditions that doesn’t quite block the view of Mt Baker

 

Ken and Corly are dwarfed by the Pasayten Wilderness stretching off to Canada

 

Ken and Paul have been friends for 25 years and though they seldom see each other it’s as if they were together all the time!

 

Luna

 

This is the basin I hiked through a month or so ago. See that here.

 

Slate Peak Lookout

 

These sedimentary rocks show that while we were over 7000′ elevation, this land was once underwater.

 

Lunch from the Rocking Horse Bakery, Mazama Store and a local orchardist served on a lichen covered rock!

 

Does Luna really like Paul so much or is she considering his lunch?

 

Lichens

 

Fall colors in an old burned forest

 

No shortage of cameras

 

If a tree falls in the forest…………