Mountain Loop Highway

Pinnacle Lake

Sep 08

Over Labor Day, I decided I wanted to attempt to visit the Bathtub Lakes located on the Pilchuck Mountain ridge east of the lookout. Also known as a “poorman’s Enchantments,” the Bathtub Lakes are a series of small tarns located in a subalpine parkland setting. There is no official trail to the lakes but the normal route to access them is via the Pinnacle Lake Trail. At the far end of Pinnacle Lake lies Iodine Gulch which provides the way up to the Bathtub Lakes.

Pinnacle Lake and the trail to it probably would remain a low-key destination if not for a rather tragic crime that occurred in 2006. Sadly, a mother and daughter were found murdered along the trail that year. To this day, the crime remains unsolved with no suspects. This was certainly on my mind as I made my first visit. It was Labor Day and despite being several miles above and off of the Mountain Loop Highway, there were still about a dozen cars at the trailhead.

The trailhead also provides access to Bear Lake which is only approximately 0.3 miles in. Before the lake, the trail forks with the left fork leading up the ridge and towards Pinnacle Lake. The trail has a reputation for being root and rock infested and…it is. I also found the trail to be fairly quiet. It doesn’t cross or parallel any streams or creeks so the only sounds are the wind and an occasional bird. Even with the full sunshine, this left a odd, tense feeling while hiking. There is a memorial plaque to the fallen along the trail and I somehow missed it. This only added to an uneasy feeling.

The trail gains steady elevation but Pinnacle Lake is only about 2 miles beyond Bear Lake. Just before Pinnacle Lake, a large seasonal pond provides a beautiful setting with sedge lined shoreline surrounded by parkland. Pinnacle Lake itself is a long but narrow lake nestled against a cliff with a large boulder / talus field along half of its shoreline. It’s still located below timberline so the view is largely territorial (as real estate agents love to say). Iodine Gulch is located almost at the far end of the lake and a faint way trail leads you to it along the lake’s southern shoreline.

I snacked and took some shots in the talus field before picking my way towards Iodine Gulch. From the lake’s edge, I needed a minute or two to find the boot path that begins the ascent into the gulch. It’s about 900 feet of elevation gain to reach the top of the ridge and the beginning of the Bathtub Lakes. It was 2pm and I made the tough decision to turn around. There was probably plenty of daylight but I would be pushing my “be home by” time pretty hard and that was something I’ve done a little TOO much lately.

I investigated a pond below the outlet of Pinnacle Lake and the larger pond I mentioned previously before beginning my hike out. I seemed to linger long enough to be the last dayhiker to leave the area. The hike out was quiet and even a bit somber for me. I hiked along, looking for the memorial plaque, but never saw it. At some point, I passed the location where two people who loved the outdoors met their end at the hands of another person. It was a heavy feeling that was difficult to shake. Upon my return to the trailhead, only one car remained.

I still long to visit the Bathtub Lakes and the area is certainly aesthetic enough to warrant further visits. I think that when I do return, I won’t be alone. It’s almost impossible to not think about what happened here.

Oct 06

I’ve made several trips to the Darrington area during the last month so I felt like looking for fall color along the Mountain Loop Highway between Barlow Pass and the Whitechuck River. Fall colors continue to be AWOL. Most maples are losing their leaves before they get to change their color. Along the rivers, the vine maples have dropped most of their leaves.

The fall color that I’ve heard about has been in the higher elevations and primarily huckleberry and mountain ash. My deepest foray into the mountains brought me up to the 4,000′ level in the Dan Creek watershed and, to my surprise, I didn’t find any fall color there as well! It’s truly been a fall to forget for fall color.

Some friends had told me about a small little waterfall in the Verlot vicinity so I made a quick stop to check it out:

After that, I continued east and then headed up towards the Headlee Pass trailhead since there’s a nice valley view just before reaching the trailhead. In the past, the mountain ash has provided fall color but not this year (I’m beginning to sound like a broken record!). What WAS cool were some low clouds drifting through the valley and the forested slopes. I spent a little bit of time watching and trying various compositions:

Afterwards, I went over Barlow Pass and stopped at spot that finally had some fall color. In my previous drives through this area, I’ve noticed the unusual red rocks & boulders here in the South Fork Sauk River so it was nice to finally stop and check it out.

Just before reaching the confluence with the Whitechuck River, I made a quick sidetrip to check out the North Fork Sauk River Falls:

Closer to the Whitechuck River, some small vine maples in the forest caught my eye:

I was really hoping to get up high to get some fall color but even up high in the Dan Creek drainage yielded nothing. Low clouds even denied me of some fine views of Whitechuck Mountain. It was getting late so I turned around and headed home. On the way out, I stopped (inadvertently!) at the same spot along the South Fork Sauk River and shot a few more photos of the red rock & fall color.

It’s been difficult deciding on where to go these past few weekends. I’m hoping to have better luck this weekend.

Buck Creek

Sep 21

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Weather once again forced a Plan B selection. During my recent trips along the Mountain Loop Highway, Buck Creek caught my eye so I made it my destination this weekend. Buck Creek is located just east of the Mount Dickerman trailhead and drains the east slopes of the mountain. It would be easy to miss if it was not for the one lane controlled bridge crossing. The creek has been eroding the downstream bridge abutments prompting Snohomish County to put in the protective measures. There is no trail here so this outing was a good old Cascade Bushwhack.

AFter gearing up, I headed upslope. After 50 yards, the creek actually has two paths to follow- the main channel which is on the left and a flood overflow channel on the right-hand side. I opted to follow the main channel. Water flow by this time of the year is substantially less than during the peak snowmelt months of early summer. What is striking is the width of water flow during significant rain events. Flood related debris carried downslope seems to cover an area 20 yards wide. This is DEFINITELY a place you do not want to be during flooding!

The creek is a steady series of cascading levels and pools along with several large logjams of flood debris. Progress upstream isn’t bad for roughly 1/3 of a mile but gets more challenging due to a large area of flood damage and slope failure. Given the time of day, I decided this would be the end of my exploration on this occasion so I headed back down. Interesting area and one that I’ll return to in the future..

Elliott Creek

Sep 07

Washington’s weather has settled back into its normal pattern- sunny weekdays and cloudy/rainy weekends. Plan A was thwarted once again by the weather so I had to find a Plan B. Given the 100% chance of rain, I tried to keep in the forest and at lower elevation. After rejected a few options, I settled on returning to the Goat Lake Trail off of the Mountain Loop Highway. I had hiked this trail many years ago and remembered that it paralleled Elliott Creek for much of the way to Goat Lake. It seemed like the best option given the 100% chance of rain.

The trail to Goat lake is five miles long and actually has two options- an upper trail and a lower trail. The upper trail follows a decommissioned road while the lower trail follows Elliott Creek. About halfway in, both trails merge and continue onward to Goat Lake. On this day, I focused just on the lower trail and Elliot Creek. It gradually gains elevation as you head up valley and always stays within earshot of the creek. A nice added bonus is that the forest along the lower trail is very diverse and lush, offering even more to look at.

On this particular day, it rained steadily the entire time and both myself and my camera gear got drenched. Thankfully, Pentax makes cameras and lenses that are built to take these kind of conditions! As these outings tend to go for me, the destination wasn’t as important as the trail to it so I only managed to make it a fraction of the way in towards Goat Lake.

Marten Creek

Mar 23

This weekend I picked up the Pentax 12-24mm ultrawide lens and so I had to go out and break it in. The weekend brought another storm system so I decided to head up the Mountain Loop Highway outside the town of Granite Falls and revisit Marten Creek. I hiked this last winter but reasons I can’t explain, I never took any photos. As I looked back on it, I remembered that there were some nice stretches along the creek so back I went.

While not a long hike, it does have a steep beginning and along the way, you pass through an ongoing research plot that the Forest Service monitors:

The study evaluates the correlation of Douglas Fir growth based on seed sources taken from across the Pacific Northwest. There is a second sign nearby which summarizes what they learned back in 1960. The steepness continues for a bit further and then relents as you enter the upper valley. At that point, exploration of the creek is possible…