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Category Archives: North Cascades

Cuthroat Lake

Yesterday was Luna’s sixth birthday! It just doesn’t seem possible that she’s officially middle aged. What does that make me? We celebrated with a hike to Cuthroat Lake – a gem of a lake in the North Cascades. It’s an easily accessible trailhead off of highway 20 and it’s only a two mile saunter to get to the lake. I’ve only been there once before, years ago and in the middle of summer. The mosquitoes chased me away in no time and I never returned til yesterday. Fall is definitely the time to visit Cuthroat Lake. The trail was not overly busy yesterday, surprising for a three day weekend with fine fall weather.

 

Beautiful colors

 

On the trail

 

Most of the small creeks are dry.

 

After no rain for weeks on end, the trail is very dusty

 

They needed a break

 

Pretty

 

Frozen bubbles

 

This grass was still frosty at midday

 

Fall larches color the forest

 

Ken had to wet a fly

 

Luna thinks maybe this is a little boring

 

That’s a tiny trout

 

Luna’s not sure if this is the highlight of her day

 

More pretty

 

Birthday girl with her birthday buff

 

Fall lighting is the best

 

Love the way it lights up the larches

 

A breeze ripples the clear water

 

More fall colors

 

Ice crystals force up through the moist soil along the shady side of the lake

 

The water is so clear – there is no sneaking up on the trout

 

Blue and yellow – my favorite color combination

 

Larches are my favorite trees

 

Exploring

 

And still more pretty

 

Treasures

 

Mom and baby sister

 

Lots of local Methow folks made the trip to Cuthroat Lake yesterday.

 

Hiking in the North Cascades

Here it is – mid-summer and I’ve barely been out on any hikes. That needs to change. Yesterday I had a window of opportunity and drove up to Harts Pass. It’s a rugged and narrow road and if you are afraid of heights, you’d best not look out the window. The drop down to the Methow River is precipitous, to say the least. One particularly bad stretch is called Dead Horse Point in honor of a string of pack horses that went over the edge back in the days before there was a road. The trail and the eventual road were put in to service the mining camps and the old and now abandoned, town of Barron, headquarters of gold mining in the Harts Pass area. It’s hard to imagine that at one time there were 1000’s of miners, a store, and other components of a rough community so high in the mountains. Now it’s primarily a recreation area and access to the Pasayten Wilderness. The road ends just below the lookout at Slate Peak, about 7400′ elevation. This is the highest maintained road in Washington. Snow has not all melted so I parked about a mile and a half below the lookout and with Luna, walked to the top. The views were stunning and wildflowers abundant. The temperature was 77. It was very refreshing. In Winthrop it was 97.

 

My what a big tongue you have!

 

I have forgotten more wildflower names than I know these days.

 

A yellow violet, maybe Viola glabella

 

 One of the phloxes

 

Slate Peak in the distance. You can see a similar view in this post from last November 7 at the beginning of winter

 

 

 

Luna looking over the edge. She’s not afraid of heights. You can see Mount Baker in NW Washington on the left side of the image.

 

 

Heading down and looking back at the lookout. You can see part of the Pacific Crest Trail down below.

 

Nice thing to do after a hike.

 

Caltha sp. ?

 

 Anemone occidentalis

 

Buttercups, Ranunculus sp.

 

A burned silver forest

 

These yellow glacier lillies, Erythronium grandiflorum, bloom immediately following snow melt.

 

Paintbrush, Castilleja sp.

 

Another Phlox sp.

 

Monkeyflower, Mimulus sp.

I am learning a new camera – one of the mirrorless micro 4/3 models and finding it not the most intuitive thing I’ve ever held. Hopefully images will improve with practice. Wish me luck. I may return to carrying the large heavy DSLR although I’d really like to cut down on the weight I take hiking with me.

 

It’s Open

Today Highway 20 across the North Cascades opened for the summer season. It’s been closed since last November. In recent weeks people have been riding bikes up it, enjoying the traffic-free sunny days as they grind up the mountain. At noon, all that changed. The sound of Harley’s filled the air and RV’s trudged through town. It’s good for business but it does change the way of life in Winthrop and Mazama. For the first time ever, I decided to drive up on opening day to see the big cut snowbanks and enjoy the mountain air. But first, Luna and I went for a bike ride at Big Valley, where just weeks ago, we were skiing!

Ok, maybe it was nearly two months ago but it doesn’t seem like that long since we were skiing here.

 

Luna enjoyed the clear cold water of the Methow

 

The river is running a little high, much higher than in the winter

 

Not too high for swimming

 

This bike rider was enjoying the long hill climb as his wife drove the route, photographing him.

 

Liberty Bell from that same spot

And she made my picture too.

 

 

 

Early Winter

Yesterday we went for a ‘Sunday Drive’. All the dogs piled into the new car and we took some snacks and headed up the Chewuch River. Not too much snow up there so we had some nice easy walks. Two of the dogs are old and one is nearly lame so we all took it easy.

Our first stop was Falls Creek Falls – pretty in all seasons and some especially interesting ice forms this visit.

The Yellow Belly – Ponderosa Pines – are especially pretty in winter

Rosehips brilliant color and citrus taste make them especially attractive to birds. People enjoy them as well.

We saw two beavers on the Chewuch.

The fresh light snow was excellent for tracking animals. Here is a tiny one – maybe a vole?

And a moose. There were two sets – maybe a cow and calf.

And a big black bear. It walked along the road between when we drove up and when we returned. This was the second set of bear tracks we saw yesterday. I wonder when they will begin hibernating?

Lots of elderberries still hanging from the bushes. Do bears eat these?

And more beautiful rosehips

Ice on the Chewuch 

And the lonely snags from the 30 Mile Fire, ten years ago. Wind blowing through them made an eerie wailing sound. No doubt, these woods are haunted.

Driving in to Winter

Just three weeks after the unfortunate accident with the deer, I have a new car! What a relief to get through all that. I was anxious to see how well it handles in snow and on rough roads so I called a friend and asked if she wanted to go Harts Pass. Who knows, we might see a few cool winter time birds too. On the way up we were treated to three Varied Thrushes. A good sign.

View of the North Cascades, looking south

 

Looking west

 

We hit snow not far above the goat lick area. Not too much and it was cold and powdery. We passed Harts Pass and parked at the horse loading and unloading parking lot and got out to walk. Very shortly we heard and saw Pine Grosbeaks! Several of them coming and going from the tops of spruce trees. We looked away and began to walk up the road some more and I looked back and I saw a Northern Hawk Owl! A first for my friend. She only got a short look at it before it flew down and maybe towards the road to Meadows where I have seen it in past years. It was in the same grove of trees where we saw the grosbeaks. We kept walking up to the last switchback before the road goes UP to Slate Peak, seeing other flocks of birds we judged to be more Pine Grosbeaks all coming from and going the same general direction. The view from the ridge top to the basin below the lookout was beautiful. Lots of big animal tracks in the snow crossed and crisscrossed the openings. We turned back towards the car, again following the road. Below the PCT trailhead, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and looked and stopped my friend – there was a flock of 7 Gray-crowned Rosy-finches feeding on the open spots right next to us on the cut bank! What a treat to see them so close. They were perfectly silent.

Gray-crowned Rosy-finches

Back at the parking lot we saw Mountain Chickadees. We also saw Ravens and a Red-tailed Hawk on our walk. We heard Clark’s Nutcrackers and a Stellar’s Jay. There were bicycle tracks in the snow too! Someone had ridden all the way up, perhaps even to the lookout. We didn’t get that far on foot.

Bicycle tracks in the snow

Slate Peak lookout

We had lunch and drove down to the road that goes to Meadows. Again, lots of interesting tracks. Maybe a lynx? Weasels, coyotes, and no doubt others.

Here are two sets of tracks. One set that we thought might be coyote had been going down the road. The other set that we guessed to be a lynx, had come from the side, then intersected the first set and followed it for quite a ways. There’s a story there, we were sure of it.

We parked and walked back along the road towards Harts Pass. One more highlight was an American Three-toed Woodpecker working the snags. I wondered how often the bird was finding something to eat for all of its efforts. It was joined for a short time by a White-breasted Nuthatch.

The car performed as advertised. I imagine I’ll be happy with it in the long run. Still, I miss the old Honda.

Skies were blue, the snow was powdery, wind was mostly calm, good time spent with a close friend; the whole day was enchanting!