Winter’s return
Earlier in the week, winter returned to the mountains. At Artist Point near the Mount Baker Ski Area, 4″ of snow fell. My highly anticipated Lee Graduated ND filters also came this week after a lengthy production delay so I was eager to get out and try them. The unsettled weather from the week was forecasted to spill over into Saturday but, as Saturday morning developed, the weather looked MUCH more promising than the forecasts so I decided to roll the dice and head out for sunset.
My destination would be the Bagley Lakes area of Heather Meadows. I wanted to find out how the fall color was developing in the Nooksack River valley (it’s about 2 weeks off) but I was also hoping to include the new snow as part of my compositions. A beautiful fall afternoon followed me and seeing most of Mount Baker from the outskirts of Glacier was a good sign. These first snows of the season also brought the closure of the Mount Baker Highway at the ski area so my hike would be starting from the ski area.
Photographers of all abilities head to Heather Meadows, primarilly to capture their own version of the famous photo of Mount Shuksan and Picture Lake. Today was no exception and both visitors and photographers were scattered all over the trails around Heather Meadows. For me, I wanted a bit more solitude and less crowds so I opted for a slight cardio workout and made my destination the saddle that divides the Bagley Lakes basin and the Chain Lakes basin.
From the ski area parking lot, this amounted to a 2.1 mile hike with about 1,300′ of elevation to gain. Although I’ve been here too many times to count, I’ve never explored this trail. Almost from the start, I realized there were many, many interesting compositions. I’ll have to return next summer during the peak of wildflowers. The trail starts by paralleling Bagley Creek for a half mile or so.
Upon reaching Upper Bagley Lake, the trail winds around the base of Mount Herman and the elevation gain begins…
After some switchbacks, the views get bigger and the saddle comes into view. The upper basin is notable for the high concentration of volcanic rock. There’s still a couple hundred feet of elevation gain and it’s accomplished by a few, drawn out switchbacks.
The snow deepened before the saddle but was no more than 2-3″ deep. From the saddle, the race was on to find compositions for both Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan. I felt it was just a bit too far to drop down to the Chain Lakes (although it did look interesting!). After deciding on a location, the show began. This sunset easily surpassed last week’s sunset and was one of the better ones I’ve been able to photograph in a while.
Alpenglow was present and strong and the scattered cloudcover kept providing highlights to the changing light. It spectacular but made it chaotic because I rapidly kept changing positions to photograph Mount Baker to the south and Mount Shuksan to the north. Sunset passed and just about the moment I decided to pack my gear, a full moon broke through the building clouds to the north. I decided to snap only a few quick shots since I still had a ways to hike out with wet & icy conditions. About an hour later, I was back safe and sound in the parking lot. I was so glad that I rolled the dice for this outing!
