Posts by: Steve Cole

Return to Cougar Divide

With my abbreviated trip earlier in the week, I decided to take advantage of it by heading back to Cougar Divide to wait for sunset. I thought the coming low pressure system might bring in some clouds to add some flavor and interest for sunset. The pending storm system actually traveled quicker than I had expected and left me with mostly gray skies for sunset. I had the entire ridge to myself this evening with the notable exception of mosquitoes. I was somewhat surprised to discover that the bugs on Cougar Divide were just as ferocious this evening as they were during my last visit several weeks ago. This is definitely one of the buggiest locations I’ve visited here in the Pacific Northwest..

Cougar Divide Panorama
Mount Baker from Cougar Divide
Mount Baker from Cougar Divide
Mount Shuksan from Cougar Divide
Cougar Divide Trail
Sunset to the west
Mount Baker from Cougar Divide

Failure at Lost Creek Ridge

View Larger Map in New Window
Plans don’t always come together like you intend. For me, I had planned on a five day exploration of the five mile long Lost Creek Ridge within the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Subalpine meadows, lakes and constant views of Glacier Peak sounded like a great combination for photography. It stands to reason that you have to GAIN the ridge to enjoy these sights. Several years ago, I day hiked up to the ridge so I already had some familiarity with the trail and what to expect.

Lost Creek Ridge Trail
The trail starts at 1800′ in the North Fork Sauk River Valley and, for the first half mile, affords a very rich forest understory. Water is common during the first half mile but only early in the season (bone dry during my trip). After the first half mile, the switchbacks begin and just don’t seem to stop. The steepest portion of the ascent does end with your arrival at Bingley Gap, a forested ridgeline 3 miles in at 4400 feet.

From Bingley Gap, additional switchbacks and 500 vertical feet finally reward you with your first unobstructed views of the Sauk River Valley. Leaving the forest, the trail contours the steep slopes and enters the subalpine meadows. About five miles in from the trailhead, you reach a fork in the trail which leads you to Round Lake, a beautiful lake tucked away in a bowl below the ridge. Excellent camping exists at the lake but they must be accessed by a steep 0.7 mile long trail down into the bowl.

Round Lake
My plan was to access the ridge on day one, hike across to the east end on day two, spend day three exploring the area around Lake Byrne, hike back across the ridge for day four and then hike out on day five. Forecasts called for sunny conditions (including a brief warm up during the week) the entire week. Unlike previous summers, I would be doing this trip solo (a first for me). My backpack seemed heavier than normal this year and weighed in close to 60 pounds. Unlike last year, I expanded my camera gear to 3 lenses along with other accessories.

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs..
The full pack, constant barrage of bugs, and underestimation of the trail with a full pack wore me down and I arrived at Round Lake much later than I would have originally expected. This trip was one of commitment and by the end of my first day, I knew that I just “didn’t have it” to make the full trip as I had planned. The wilderness is no place to be foolish and so I headed back out the next day. Disappointing to be sure, but there’s always tomorrow. Here are a few additional shots from the ridgeline overlooking Round Lake..

Round Lake Panorama
Sloan Peak from Lost Creek Ridge
Clear waters of Round Lake
Talus shoreline - Round Lake

Mazama Ridge

Based on my visit last week, I knew that I had to return to Mazama Ridge this week for peak wildflowers. Thankfully, it did not disappoint. The weather was a challenge since it was windblown steady light rain / mist for much of the day. Very late in the day, the weather seemed to finally start breaking up but the mountain itself never revealed itself. I can’t emphasize enough how amazing it is to see the wildflower peak in person. Now to the day’s photos…

Mazama Ridge Trail
Mazama Ridge Trail
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Wildflower Meadow - Mazama Ridge
Lupine and Indian Paintbrush
Mazama Ridge Trail
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers

Mount Rainier Wildflowers – 3

[Part 3 of 3]

Due to my extended stay at Chinook Pass, I was running a bit behind schedule so I raced to Reflection Lakes as soon as possible. This was to be my first trip up Mazama Ridge and based on some research of the topo maps, I had an idea of where I wanted to be for sunset. As I quickly learned, topo maps only tell part of the story and so I had to venture further and higher up the ridge than I had originally anticipated.

Sunset this particular evening was nothing special and a report estimating peak wildflower blooms in another week also seemed true. Still, several locations had magnificant displays of wildflowers..

Moonrise over the Tatoosh Range and Louise Lake
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Around the official time for sunset, I finally reached higher and more open ground. I scrambled to find a nice foreground and found this stretch of lupine in bloom. It was getting dark and I had to use longer exposures along with a graduated neutral-density filter to balance exposures for the sky and foreground. Bugs were still quite active making for a hasty session. While these photos looked good during a very quick review in the field, they didn’t not live up to their potential once I was back home. Still an amazing place to experience..

Moonrise of the Tatoosh Range
Mazama Ridge Wildflowers
Sunset, Lupine, and Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier Wildflowers – 2

[Part 2 of 3]

After finishing up at Tipsoo Lake, I took the log bridge over Highway 410 and started out on the Naches Loop Trail on the backside of Naches Peak. Wildflower conditions along the trail (which is also part of the Pacific Crest Trail) were also in prime conditions. Due to time constraints related to my last stop of the day, I only traveled about a mile to a wonderful small, unnamed lake alongside the trail..

Field of Pasqueflower at Chinook Pass
Trailside wildflowers
Lupine
Path choices at the lake
Indian Paintbrush
Wildflowers along the shoreline
Sitka Valerian amongst Lupine
Unnamed lake along the Naches Loop Trail
Once I finished up, I quickly raced over to my last stop of the day: Mazama Ridge for sunset.

Mount Rainier Wildflowers – 1

[Part 1 of 3]

Friday I headed down to check out the wildflower displays at Mount Rainier. This actually marked the first time that I’ve witnessed peak blooms at Mount Rainier. All the photos you’ve seen in picture books just doesn’t compare to the real thing. I decided to break up the day’s photos into three separate blog posts based on where I visited. This first post covers the time I spent around Tipsoo Lake at Chinook Pass.

I didn’t arrive until mid-day so the lighting was rather harsh and so was the thick haze that’s developed during this very dry stretch. A report from another photographer I read two days ago said that Tipsoo Lake was in prime conditions for wildflowers and he was spot on. Simply amazing to see in person..

Tipsoo lake wildflowers
Tipsoo Lake Wildflowers
Clouds forming over Yakima Peak
Wildflowers along the shoreline of Tipsoo Lake
Fields of Lupine
Tipsoo Lake Wildflowers
Clouds building over Naches Peak
Once I finished up at the Lake, I decided to explore the Naches Loop Trail (details in my next blog post)…

Cougar Divide

What’s worse than forgetting your camera?

Forgetting the memory card AND bringing the camera. Such is the reality I dealt myself this weekend as I arrived at the trail to Cougar Divide. More on that later..

This trail lies at the end of Wells Creek Road at about 5,000 feet and is only accessible for 4 short months of the year. I use the term accessible loosely because the road receives little to no maintenance (particularly after the bridge over Wells Creek). Still, as of this writing, the trailhead is still accessible with only one stretch of road that could unnerve the average driver or someone in a full size pickup.

Only one other car at the trailhead but TONS of mosquitos which should have been my first omen. I had sunscreen but no bug juice. Somewhat annoying but how bad could it be? Uh, BAD. Just 15 minutes in on the trail brings you to a viewpoint which would make any other hike worth it:

Mount Baker from the Cougar Divide Trail
180 Degree Panorama from Cougar Divide Trail. Mount Shuksan (left center) and Mount Baker (right center)
Small meltpond along Cougar Divide Trail
In this open subalpine forest, there are many interesting geological features:

Volcanic Rock along the trail. Skyline Divide in the background.
More Trailside Geology
After a brief open stretch the trail plunges back into forest before reaching meadows. On this particular day, however, my journey ended here in the woods:

Along Cougar Divide
Taking that three photo panorama resulted in my legs being devoured by mosquitos. Given the fact that I couldn’t use my primary camera, I decided to turn around and save the rest of this hike for an upcomming weekend. So what do you do when you can’t use your camera? In my case, I decided to press on and use my iPhone 3GS so every photo from this blog post is an iPhone photo. I thought it didn’t do that bad a job, though I did lighten the photos up in Photoshop. Live and learn!..

Out of Town 7/11 – 7/18

Just a quick note to say that I’ll be out of town all next week so there won’t be any new posts until the end of July. Thanks for looking!..

Surprise Creek

My last trip to Deception Creek was so nice that I decided to head one drainage over to the east and check out Surprise Creek. Located at the upper end of the Tye River Valley, it’s located in the vicinity of where the railroad punches through the Cascades through a tunnel. The trailhead starts underneath the BPA transmission lines but quickly dives into beautiful forest and finally enters the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

The trail is about 5 miles in length and eventually reaches the highlands and some upper lakes near the Pacific Crest Trail. It does steadily gain elevation as you head up valley but does so at a somewhat leisurely pace. After about 2/3rds of a mile, you finally gain sight of Surprise Creek. After a mile, the trail switches sides of the creek and continues upstream. During my trip, I only continues another half mile or so upvalley due to time constraints. The warm, sunny day made for difficult photography but its definately worthy of future trips and additional exploration…

Small Waterfall on Surprise Creek
Surprise Creek Waterfall
Devils Club along Surprise Creek
Surprise Creek (Vertical Shot)
Surprise Creek (Horizontal Shot)
Surprise Creek

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