Old Growth

Swift Creek

This past weekend brought more exploration but closer to home. No doubt photographers in the Pacific Northwest are familiar with the Waterfalls of the Northwest website. While looking through the database of waterfalls, I was drawn into a listing for Rainbow Falls in the vicinity of Mount Baker. It’s described as having a 150 foot drop but also very hard to see due to the deeply incised canyon it empties into. I’ve looked over the topo maps and decided to try and access the falls via the canyon floor by following Rainbow Creek upstream.

The area is accessed by a little used trail- the Swift Creek trail. Long ago, this was the route used to reach Heather Meadows (now the site of the Mount Baker Ski Area) from the Baker Lake region. These days the trail is slowly returning to nature- only the first 2 miles or so receive any maintenance (and its been a few years since the last trail work). It’s a short hike down to Rainbow Creek from the trailhead. The Swift Creek Trail crosses the creek over a very primative log bridge that’s probably not for the faint of heart:

Log Bridge over Rainbow Creek - Swift Creek Trail
From this point, Rainbow Falls is a half mile upstream to the left. In theory. Last fall, I attempted to follow the creek upstream but chose to cross the creek and then follow the far bank. I made it slightly less than halfway before getting cliffed out. This time, I chose to follow the near bank but this also led to the same conclusion- cliffed out. I can say definitively that it’s not possible to reach the falls from the canyon bottom.

With my primary objective out of reach, I decided to cross the creek via the log bridge and head up the Swift Creek trail. This trail is a hidden gem which affords the hike with some quality traits: a lush & diverse forest and solitude. So much solitude that I started to think about bears. The last thing I wanted to do was surprise a bear on the trail so I constantly made noise by banging my trekking poles together.

Following the crossing of Rainbow Creek, the trail heads gently up valley before a brief series of switchbacks that place you into an upper bench of the Swift Creek valley. At this point, some huge cedars are passed alongside the trail:

Click for a larger view
Swift Creek Trail
Since the trail has not received much maintenance, there are some areas of blowdown to negotiate. As I drew closer to Swift Creek, I came across a black bear’s track in the mud:

Click for a larger view
Two miles in, Swift Creek is reached. It’s unclear to me what this crossing used to be like- a bridge? A cable car? In either case, there’s no good way to cross (especially when the creek runs high such as on this day). Even without continuing further, there’s still a lot to see and appreciate..

Looking upstream - Swift Creek
Looking downstream - Swift Creek
The Cauldron - Swift Creek
Swift Creek
Reminants of an old crossing - Swift Creek

Winter in Mount Rainier…

Several circumstances have sidelined me from taking photos for the better part of a month. With the holiday weekend, I was determined to finally get out and I decided that I wanted to head south to Mt Rainier. Initially I wanted to poke around the subalpine slopes of Paradise but the forecasts didn’t seem cooperate for mountain views.

After some thinking, I finally decided on returning to Silver Falls and the Grove of the Patriarchs in the southeast corner of the park. My only other visit was last June and I was curious how winter would change the landscape. First, I had to verify that this was possible. After some emails and phone calls to the Park Service and the state DOT, I was told by both that the highway was clear of snow up to the park’s entrance. That made a long day a little shorter with a roundtrip on snow of about 7.5 miles.

After picking up my friend, we drove another 2.5 hours to the turnoff from Highway 12 and were immediately greeted by this:

Highway 123 / Highway 12 JunctionCrap. Our long trip became even longer. The snow on the road now added another 2.5 miles just to reach the park entrance. We made good time getting there so we geared up and headed out on foot. Thankfully a firm base with only 1-2″ of new snow made snowshoes unnecessary. About an hour later, we arrived at the park entrance:

Entrance to Mount Rainier National ParkContinuing on, we finally arrived at the Silver Falls trailhead after another 1.5 hours (~5.25 miles from my truck). A short scramble downslope brought us to the falls:

Silver Falls in winter
Below the fallsDownstream of the falls:

Downstream of the fallsAfter lunch, it was time to move on and continue north. About a half-mile north, the Stevens Canyon Rd park entrance is reached:

Stevens Canyon Park EntranceHere, the snow depth was about 4′ deep (at about 2000′ elev). The trailhead for the Grove of the Patriarchs is just beyond the entrance. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a sign posted that told us that the suspension bridge across the river to the Grove has sustained damage during the fall 2008 flooding and was closed. Double crap.

Well, we had come this far so why not go another half mile to take a look? We did so and arriving at the bridge, we found it standing with no visible signs of damage. In fact, the entire span had 4′ of snow on the deck and seemed to be supporting it just fine. A sign on the bridge simply advised one person at a time when crossing the bridge.

We decided to cross it and I went first. I was able to cross without incident and so my friend followed:

Carefully crossing the Ohanapecosh RiverSafely on firm ground, we arrived at the Grove. Being the dead of winter, the highway (which is across the channel from the Grove) is closed and so there was no noise whatsoever. It’s very rewarding to experience this environment in complete solitude.

Grove of the Patriarchs
Grove of the Patriarchs panoramaNew growth on a very old Douglas Fir:

New growth..I admit that I have a hard time photographing this place and I think it just has to do with the immense scale of the environment. Here my friend stands in front of one of the cedars:

A Sense of scale..Big brother, little brother…

Big brother, little brotherFinally, there was this interesting sight. Normally, as limbs die on a tree, they break off due to snow, weather, etc. For this particular cedar, it hasn’t happened so it seemed like a medusa tree:

Medusa treeWith that, it was time head make the long trek back. As we headed back, the weather broke more and more and we were treated to some nice sunset color above us as we hiked out. About 8 hours and 12.5 miles roundtrip and we never saw a soul. A grueling but very rewarding effort.

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