Skykomish

The Foss

I finally found myself bsck on more familiar ground this week after my trip to Honduras. I lost track of time recently so I spent the best day of this weekend framing my entry for next week’s Edmonds Art Show (I’ll save my original destination for next weekend). I still felt the need to get out so I headed out to the Foss River valley to explore some more.

First up is a small creek that runs underneath Highway 2 a little bit west of Skykomish. I’ve thought about stopping at this location for a while now but never have. It turns out that it did have some photo worthy opportunities:

Unnamed Creek
Unnamed Creek
From here, I pressed onward and headed up the Foss River Road. Once again, there’s one particular creek that I’ve crossed but never explored. The full sunshine was havoc but once again I found some interesting scenes:

Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Next up was a second visit to a particular spot along the Foss River that I found earlier this winter. By now, the weather was SLOWLY turning with scattered clouds beginning to drift through. Still- bright sunshine was still dominating:

Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
From here, I headed up the valley to see if I could get up to the Evans Lake trailhead. It looked hopeful but about 1 mile shy of the trailhead the road became snow covered and undriveable. At one point, I happened to look up and watched some whispy clouds stream across the ridgeline above me. The clouds were backlit due to the sun and a halo kept appearing:

Sun Halo
From here, I doubled back down the valley and wanted to quickly check out the conditions near Jack’s Pass on the Beckler River Rd. I was bummed to find a MASSIVE windfall blocking one of the side roads off of the pass about 0.5 miles in. A four foot diameter trunk sheered off about 30 feet off of the ground. I’m not so sure this will get cleared this year. That will put a damper on a few of my plans!

Foss River

The end of the MLK holiday weekend brought another uncharacteristic sunny winter day. I decided to take advantage of the clear weather and mild temperatures but stay little closer to home. My destination was the Foss River, which is just east and south of the town of Skykomish. I intended to hike the beginning stretch of the Necklace Valley trail but, as I drove along the Foss River Road (FS Road 68), I kept looking down off the road at the Foss River and could tell that there were some interesting stretches of the river.

Photography conditions were a bit challenging because the sun’s position was almost directly up valley of the river. Any photo compositions that included the sky would get blown out real quickly. Anyways, I’m really glad I explored this section of river because I’m anticipating better photos this coming summer and fall!

Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River

Soggy Cascades

Despite the 100% certainly of rain, I ventured into the Cascades for a forest hike. The heart of the Central Cascades and the end of Forest Service Road 63 is what attracted my attention. At the end of that road are several trailheads: West Cady Ridge, North Fork Skykomish River, and Quartz Creek. Of those options, I decided on Quartz Creek after some research on the web. The normal access to this area is provided by the Index-Galena Road near the town of Index (also identified as Forest Service Road 63) but an alternate route is now required due to the 2006 flood damage.

Access is now achieved via the Beckler River Road (Forest Service Road 65) which goes up and over Jack Pass (2,000 feet) and then intersects FS Rd 63. This was my first visit to this area and it’s simply amazing. Fall color is now really taking off all along the Beckler River as well as the upper North Fork Skykomish River valley and the road is in really great shape. In what seemed like short order, I arrived at the trio of trailheads.

I was surprised by the absence of rain at the trailhead. After gearing up, I headed out on the trai, which was also in great shape. The Quartz Creek trail makes its way up the valley towards Curry Gap, a distance of about 4.5 miles. Not too long after starting, the rain began and alternated between stronger and lighter cells.

Quartz Creek
During my research, one of the trip reports I read mentioned a log which was large enough and hallowed out that it allowed someone to get inside of it. After finding it along the trail, I decided to get in for a photo opportunity:

Forest window
I pushed further along on the trail and was taking some additional photos when thunder and lightning made an appearance. It was loud and it was close so I immediately packed up and scampered back to the trailhead. Since I had some extra time, I looked a little closer at the surroundings as I headed home. I was so impressed by what I saw, I returned the next day to take more photos (which I’ll post later this week).

Talus slope in fall color
Boulder Creek rapids
Vine Maple along Boulder Creek
Forest snag
Red tailed hawk
Forest scene

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