Serendipity and Orchids: okanogan-wenatchee national forest

Showing posts with label okanogan-wenatchee national forest. Show all posts

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Chiwaukum Creek

On our way to eastern Washington we hiked (dwadled is more accurate) along part of the Chiwaukum Creek trail, which if followed far enough takes one into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. We did not go nearly that far, but far enough to see the damage caused by the 2014 wildfires. The Chiwaukum Complex fire burned nearly 14,000 acres in the area between mid-July and the end of August. The area we hiked was already recovering and the wildflowers were in abundance. We not only found the Western Fairy Slippers we were looking for but also found the first Lewisias of the season. Know as Mountain Roses, Lewisia tweedyi grows only in the Wenatchee area of the Central Cascades. There had been rain the night before so everything was bejeweled with water drops and we took a lot of pictures of those as well as of the wildflowers.

the trail and the creek

burned trees from the 2014 fires

raindrops

Spring Orange Peel Fungus

fungus on wild roses

Sword Fern

Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Upland Larkspur

Cliff Painbrush

Ballhead Waterleaf

Stony-ground Lupine

Mountain Rose (Lewisia tweedyi)

Naked Broomrape

Slender Woodland Star

Large False Solomon's Seal

Martindale's Desert Parsley

Hooker's Fairy Bells

conifer

Martin Creek

(along the Old Cascade Highway)

the Enchantments

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Heather Pass and Lake Ann

On October 24 my wife and I traveled to eastern Washington and Spokane. On the way, as is often the case, we did some hiking, on this occasion at Heather Pass. We left early in the morning and after visiting the overlook at Washington Pass arrived at the trailhead at about 10:00 am.

The trail makes a loop through both Heather Pass and Maple Pass. If followed counter-clockwise, the direction we took, it heads up a gentle mostly open slope past Lake Ann with a short side trail to the lake and climbs to Heather Pass with fabulous views of the surrounding peaks.

From Heather Pass the trail follows the ridge and climbs up to Maple Pass and then descends steeply past Rainy Lake and another side trail to that lake and back to the trailhead. It is one of the premier hikes in the North Cascades and is especially beautiful when the larches are in color.

We found when hiking the trail that there had been some snow in the area and the higher we went the deeper the snow became. At the top of Maple Pass the snow was quite deep and we met other hikers who had turned back because they were unable to find the trail.

We had our lunch at Maple Pass (in the snow) and saw that the weather was changing and fog moving in. We decided, therefore, that the advice of the other hikers was good, and turned back the way we went. Though we did not make the loop, we had a wonderful and inspiring day.

We were too late to catch the larches at their best, but there was still some color and we saw plenty of beautiful scenery to make up for what we missed. This is a trail that we have hiked twice now in the fall and both times have had to turn back because of the snow and weather.

the trailhead with frozen mushrooms and coral fungus found nearby