Continuing with the training hikes for Divya, I chose nearby Granite mountain. The trip reports had mentioned about Beargrass and given the cloudy forecast, I thought we could see at-least the flowers on this steep hike for motivation. We started to hike at 8:30 AM and we hit the fog/clouds after a mile. I had kept the Beargrass as a surprise from Divya. We saw the first flower in less than 2 miles into the hike and that’s when I introduced the flower to her.
Love the way it looks. Numerous tiny flowers form a cylindrical dome
I told her that we would see 100s of them ahead but little did I know that I would be surprised myself. The flowers started appearing again especially in the regions where the tree cover was absent. The bottom of the flowers were faded and I was wondering if we were a bit late from the full bloom. Soon, we saw the flowers had lined the trail and we were already going gaga. After few switchbacks, we could see the flowers in abundance enveloping an entire small portion of the hill.
An elderly hiker offered us a couple pic
Motivated, we continued with almost no tiredness and what we saw for the next 1 hour completely blew my mind. I hadn’t experienced such views in my 4 years of hiking in PNW. The flowers had blanketed the entire slope of the mountain and we could see them as far as our eyes could see. The clouds were still hanging around so it felt like we were in a dome full of flowers. I was expecting something in the range of 100s, but we estimated them to be in multiples of thousands. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was super awesome. The flowers in this section were almost in full bloom. We spent ample of time clicking pics but if only the photos could capture what the eyes saw.
The blog post here captures what the heart felt. Ethereal!!!
There were flowers of red and purple in few places and they contrasted well. The surrounding mountains were playing hide and seek and the Sun lit the place occasionally. We continued on to reach the ridge from where we could see the lookout. The flowers here had hardly bloomed and we could see the buds in the top. After reaching a high ground, we decided to stop there for lunch and return. On the winter route, we could see few people making their way through boulders to reach the lookout and there was a summer route which was less exposed. Enjoying the occasional surrounding views we had lunch and started the descent. The sky got clearer as we hiked down and it was then when I felt it was a summer hike. The blue sky and the green surrounding mountains were a treat too. It was well over 7 hours by the time we reached the car. It was fantastic to observe the number of flowers which appeared in the increasing log scale. The progression of bud to bloom was interesting too. Washington had surprised me yet again.
Hiked on : Sunday, 10th March 2019 Elevation Gain : 1500ft Distance : 3.6 miles round-trip (Ascent – 2 miles, Descent – 1.6 miles) Activity Overview
A quiet Sunday afternoon, no one around, standing on top of a mountain – amidst tall pine trees, scanning the horizon from left to right, I closed my eyes, stretched my arms wide, tilted my head upward facing the sky, and with all courage, fell back in a free-fall. Thud came the sound! Aw! Well, it definitely wasn’t an attempt to injure myself, but an act of sheer joy 😀 There was a flat smooth blanket of snow beneath me providing an amazing cushion for the fall! Lying down like this, on the shores of the frozen Skyline lake felt so relaxing! Yes, this was one of the moments from another lovely snowshoeing venture on a late-winter weekend.
Our journey started at 7:30am on that Sunday morning after we had a check of all necessary hiking gear and food to be taken along. The trailhead to this hike is approximately 80 miles drive from Seattle and is on the way to Leavenworth.The drive took us 1hr 45 min to reach the parking area opposite to the Stevens Pass Ski resort, driving on US highway 2 and further. Heading out, gearing up with the snow-pants, gloves, beanie and goggles, and carrying the microspikes and snowshoes along, we started the hike at 9:30am on the service road to the west of the parking area.
This winter in Washington and the pacific northwest was special in a way that it had seen greater amounts of snowfall all-around. The trail thus had snow right from the start-point; we began walking on only our boots for initial distance considering fairly hard firm snow. Very soon we had to switch to Microspikes or Snowshoes as the trail was turning out to be more snowy and slushy. We decided to put on Snowshoes, hoping that they would be a better choice further ahead on the trail. The initial climb was steep with distinct paths visible for skiers and snowshoers. The weather was cold too and that resulted in my blocked nose adding to the trouble of steep tiring climb. Yet, we kept walking and after some huff-puff and a decent amount of coverage we reached a Radio tower. The route to Skyline Lake is northwest from this point, leaving the service road and we followed the trail. We took many short breaks that helped me gather my breath and feel better. At the same time, we also enjoyed beautiful views of the Ski resort and the mountains across.
About an hour of climb opened up into something that resembled a huge playground with white glittering floor and tall green pine trees acting like a fence all-around. It was an absolutely amazing sight! Oh yes, this was the Skyline Lake! Frozen to the brim , with fresh layer of thick soft snow. There were only few people around savoring the beauty; Nikhil and I paused for a couple of moments before continuing to cut-through the snowy pathway right in the middle of the Skyline Lake. This was wonderful, but something ahead was better. In about 15 mins, following the ridge west for a quarter of a mile, we reached the beautiful rock garden just before a steep high point on the ridge. It featured enormous rocks, some huge house-sized and these looked splendid covered in fresh snow. We climbed up on one such huge rock that was relatively flat and was a good place to sit down and behold the picturesque views all-around. It turned out to be a bright sunny day with clear skies, building up the warmth around. By this time, I was breathing easy and relieved of the initial tiresome ascent.
Sitting on top facing the Steven Pass Ski resort, we got a panoramic view of all the four types of ski lines and the lifts – the green line in the middle just adjacent to the magic carpet, the blue one next to it, black and double-black towards the left, another line to the extreme right with periodic bumps for ski stunts. This was the same ski resort where I enjoyed snow showers on my very first outing in US to Leavenworth; looking at it from an elevation flashed those scenes on top of my mind and it was a nice feeling. Also the fact that I recently had started learning skiing made the views more relatable. But the best part up there was that the place was not at all crowded; there were only two more people on the summit and probably two more walking the ridge on hind side. Nikhil pointed to the Tye Peak on our left asking if I would want to climb some portion of it. It looked steep and I said, “In sometime”. He went on to explore the other side of the ridge and I stayed at the rock garden. In few minutes I saw him climbing up that slopy stretch! “Careful” I thought to myself, also, “I wanted to do it too! Huh!”. While I sat gazing at the horizon for sometime, the other two summiteers prepared to depart after which I had the whole place for myself! Soothing! I felt very peaceful on this snow-couch. Soon Nikhil returned and we opened up our packed lunch and relished the tasty pulao – it was like a date on the summit amidst glittering white wonder 🙂 We saw a couple of airplanes flying at a distance and leaving prominent white trails in the sky, which added to the beauty of serene scenes around. After more than an hour at the summit, another hiker came in; he offered for a couple of clicks, and why would we deny 😀 We posed, we then clicked more pictures, videos and experimented a ‘reflection in my glasses’ click. After a while, we put-on our snowshoes and backpacks to try that peak again. Walking on the hindside of the ridge, we saw more beautiful views of the tall and pointed Glacier peak and many more surrounding mountains.
This last portion of climb was steep and snowy, and I had to be focussed and careful. I followed Nikhil’s footsteps as he guided me up the hill to a point well past mid-way of Tye’s peak. What I witnessed from there was totally breathtaking! An even better and elevated view of everything around, including the Rock Garden where we had rested a while ago! It was just lovely! Looking back on the other side, the lined up cascades were stunning too. Having no idea of what this hike would be like when we started, little did I expect such views. Again, it was only two of us up there, and it felt merrier 🙂 We spent some peaceful and blissful time enjoying the beauty around and each-others company. We clicked more pictures; we saw a rock naturally decorated with snow and it resembled a person’s face, was nice. After few minutes, looking around one last time, we started the downward journey. Getting down was scarier and I had to be extra-cautious. I avoided looking down directly, for the deep valley would be more frightening; and kept focussing on every footstep following Nikhil’s way. It took more time to get down to the rock garden after which we walked around a bit amidst the tall rocks; the scene looked like a fantastic wall-paper! We indulged in some fun by rolling down small balls of snow which formed shapes that resembled cinnamon rolls rolling down 😀 The quite snowy mountain top had kindled the child within us 🙂
We walked back to the Skyline lake after having spent ample amount of time at the landmarks above it. To our surprise, there was nobody there too! We indulged in more funny activities : did several free-falls on snow, played catch – catch with a bottle cap (diving on snow for those catches was fun), carved large-sized N-D with our snowshoes and recorded few of these crazy moments on our cellphones. Just when we thought we had enough fun and decided to start the descent, we saw a couple of people getting down – a man with his pet dog, and a skier. Luckily we had wrapped up our craziness by this time and no one witnessed:D As we walked back, we saw another group sunbathing at the other end of the lake. It was already 2:30pm by then, and we tried looking for shortcuts to reach down. Making way through the tall pine trees was fun, and I enjoyed this portion as well 🙂 After a point, we joined the main service road trail and walked down on it, also ran down a few steep sections ( thanks to gravity and its pull 😛 ) Somewhere well-past mid-way, we saw snow structures that resembled fencing for tents – it was done by a training group I suppose; we had seen a bunch of people with a trainer on our way up. We continued walking down and after like an hour of entire descent, we reached the trailhead. Here we stopped to celebrate the completion of our hike and to get rid of our snowshoes. This was when we saw a group of 4 people who sledged down the path, it was faster and must have been much more fun (and of-course less tiring 😉 ). Wondering how strong the sleds were, Nikhil got so curious that he went on to enquire only to realize that the guy had bought them back in his childhood and he claimed that they probably don’t make such sleds anymore! Sad!
Well, all these were our bundle of experiences on this superb snowshoeing hike – nice elevation, a good climbing exercise and wonderful views. Another amazing feather on our hat of outdoor adventures as a couple! We reached the parking lot, un-geared and drove back home. By this time, I had become pretty comfortable with snowshoes and thus, this hike to Skyline lake was a very rewarding experience that filled me with plenty of cherishable moments and left me with furthermore cravings to venture into the ever pleasing mother nature 🙂
Descending from an active volcano which last erupted in 1980 and watching people emerging from the sea of clouds with pointy Mt Hood in the backdrop was a surreal experience.
I expected a blue bird day on the mountain but what I experienced was completely different. I had been long waiting to climb Mt St Helens and the recent snow and forecast tempted me to sign up for the hike. Mt St Helens last erupted in 1980 and it’s considered as the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in recorded U.S. history. Very interesting part is the caldera which is on the side of the mountain because the volcano erupted sideways instead of the usual top. I had never gotten close to the mountain before and I was excited. Since the trailhead is 4 hours away from Seattle, we chose to camp and then hike early in the morning. So I started from Seattle with 2 other hikers at 3 PM and reached the trailhead around 7 PM. We were at Marble Mountain Snow Park before dark and other hikers had already put up camp fire in the parking lot. We decided to just lay our tents on the parking spots and start the hike by 4 AM. I broke a tiny part of my tent while pitching but managed to set it up for the night. It was not too cold and we had nice time in front of fire having our dinner. I slept ok for the night and this was the first night away from my wife since marriage.
I got ready promptly by 4 AM. With micro-spikes and headlights, we started our hike in the dark at 4:30 AM. We took the Warm flows route which starts from the southern side of the mountain. The first 2.8 miles was quite gradual with most of it in the forest and then the real ascent started. It was interesting to see multiple headlights ahead of us on the mountain and the daylight breaking out slowly. It was very steep from then on and the last 2 miles gained 4000 feet. I started counting steps and kept patience during the slog. It got quite windy at some places and the cold caught on with my toes. I kept hiking without much worry since I had a vague idea of my threshold. Looking at the cloud cover all over, my hopes of seeing the caldera dwindled and I just wanted to reach the rim for the sake of completion. I had counted around 6800 steps in the last 2 miles and it was an arduous ascent with few false summits. Juggling around with my layers, filling my stomach occasionally I reached the rim after 5 hours. Fortunately, it started getting warm and the clouds were getting cleared. I saw the majestic rim initially and could see almost the entire caldera before leaving. We spent at-least an hour on the summit eating, exploring and enjoying the time. I had carried GoPro, but unfortunately it gave up on me and I had to rely on my phone for all captures. I kept scanning the caldera in the North and the escaping fumes were visible which was interesting to watch. In the south, the pointy Mt Hood was visible over the sea of clouds and it was a view to behold.
We started the descent and we saw many hikers making their way up, in-fact too many actually. There were lot of skiers and snowboarders too. I stuck to micro-spikes for the entire hike and it was adventurous descending on steep slopes with ice axe on one hand. There was a thick cloud layer below us and the view of people coming out of it looked quite surreal. We went into the whiteout soon and glissaded few times to help with our descent. The last part of steep section was particularly frustrating since the snow had turned into slush and I kept dancing all around. The final stretch in the forest was ok and it was around 2 PM by the time we had reached trailhead. It took a slight toll on me since it was a long hard hike after a big break but I loved it nonetheless. I was happy that I could finally see the caldera from close and maybe hike during summer, the next time.
Road conditions: Good, no snow on road. Trailhead: Marble Mountain Snow park. Snow permit required for Winter. Trail: Well marked in the forest and quite straightforward on the mountain. Gear: I carried crampons but made the entire hike with just the micro-spikes.
It’s my second week in the beautiful city of Seattle. Recently, my life saw a total turn-over with me getting hitched, quitting my job and traveling all the way to the United States; I was still in this state of realizing all that was happening to me – which seemed more like a screenplay: right from the several months of wedding preparations, setting up baseline for myself in the US, handling last few months of my beloved job to finally getting married, being welcomed by a warm and huge new family, visiting relatives, packing for my big travel, leaving my homeland and landing in Washington. Indeed a lot to sync-in and much more coming up!
Saturday, 26th Jan 2019, our second weekend together and Nikhil had planned a surprise outing, a beginner’s hike close-by. All I knew was that we would be snowshoeing and I was pretty excited as well as nervous considering it was the first time I would be doing something like that. The preparations started few days before and this is when I saw how much passion my husband has towards these hikes. He ensured I had almost all the necessary gear – thanks to Decathlon and REI, we bought hiking shoes, snow-shoes, gaiters, hiking poles, beanie, gloves, sunglasses, jacket and a lot more! Of-course multiple layers of clothes have always been my companion if I have to venture out of our home here.
On that Saturday, we woke up at 5am, got ready, gathered all the hiking stuff we had set-up the previous night, along with the deliciously cooked pulao for lunch & the bread upma as breakfast on our drive to the destination. After ensuring we had all things ticked from my husband’s checklist for the outing, we headed out at 6:15am, drove to his friend Sai’s place, and left Seattle at 7am in his brand-new Jeep Cherokee. The drive was pleasant with lots of fun-talks, the filling breakfast and my power-nap before we reached close to our destination. We could see the lovely country-side all along, very soon the road-sides had snow and at 10 miles close to our destination we could witness the morning sun-rays and snow-covered mountain tops. This was a perfect pathway to welcome us on our hike to the Artist Point! Yes, we drove into the Mt Baker mountain area and I was revealed of what we would be up-to on this lovely day.
The trailhead to Artist Point is at the last parking area on the right at the end of the road, as we continue to drive on the Mount Baker Highway past the Picture Lake (which was frozen currently). This being my first hike with my hiker-husband, I was eager to see what it would be like. I had already had an aerial glimpse of these astonishing mountain ranges and the splendid Pacific North-west region while landing into Washington state (Nikhil says I was lucky to see such beautiful views and clear skies on my very first travel here). I gathered that this hike would be roughly a 3.5-mile round trip snowshoe with about 1000 ft elevation gain, and we dressed-up with all the appropriate gears and finally the snow-shoes. It was around 10:40am when we started and the trail was snow-covered right from the beginning. So, this would be my first proper hike on a snow after my two-and-half years earlier one to the Hamta Pass in the Himalayas where I did do roughly a 10km roundtrip on snow (with the hiking shoes and not the snowshoes). My liking towards snow had triggered then, and the very initial trail to Artist Point already seemed a perfect onset to that ignited spark. The weather was sunny with clear skies, perfect for a beginner like me, yet I was feeling a bit cold, especially my fingers. This being a popular destination, there were almost always clearly visible tracks to follow. I began walking, learning to snowshoe and handle the snow-poles. Initially there were various tracks in the open and a relatively flat terrain adjacent to the ski area. As we ascended, the trail got a bit steeper which followed exactly the ski area boundary that was clearly marked. There were already gorgeous views of snow-covered peaks and the north-face of Table-top Mountain, and we clicked a few pictures. Nikhil insisted we walk further and there would be much more to be amazed of, and we continued hiking. He kept capturing nice moments all-along using the Gopro.
As we marched further, I witnessed the sparkling snow all around – few portions converted into trails by the fellow hikers, and ample other portion untouched, glittering to the peak of its beauty, reflecting the warm sun-rays. The pine trees in between added to the picturesque scenes. I was getting slightly better with the snow-shoes, at the same time my body started warming up. Soon I wanted to remove a layer of clothing and my fingers got better. We continued walking; there were few steep ascents and I skid on the ground unable to find firm foot on the fresh steep snow. Nikhil came to my rescue, and taught me the technique to better utilize spikes on my snowshoe. I was enjoying it but wanted to take breaks since the ascent was a bit tiring till now. We reached a point where there were awesome views all-around and I was left spellbound already! It was a rewarding experience to ascend further into the wide open terrain. There were many routes to reach the Artist Point – few easier trails and a couple of steep climbs which we didn’t take. I heard from Nikhil that this area typically gets lots of snow: it even holds the world record for total amount of snowfall within a season. These snow-covered mountains and the white valleys were no less a proof to this fact! We clicked more pictures and continued our journey.
The final climb to Artist Point was a bit steeper again and flattened out into a beautiful slightly hilly area, with the mighty Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan visible on either sides. There were also the Huntoon point and the Table-top mountain among several other peaks which exemplified the beauty. All this was heavenly and words would fall short to describe the views all-around! I was exhausted, yet the beauty struck deep to me. We finally reached the place with a couple of pine trees standing tall on the snow-laden floor and this was Artist Point! It was around 1pm, the whole ascend was rewarding and I was glad that I had finally made it. Nikhil and Sai went in search of a place to rest and have lunch, while I was still rejoicing and assimilating such beauty all-around. They soon found one and I followed. We made a flat surface amidst the snow to sit back and relax. Nikhil had tips for almost everything we ventured upon, right from the way of dumping backpacks on snow to the final scanning before leaving a place we took halts at! We opened up our lunch that was a mixture of sweets and savouries with the yummy pulao cooked by my husband. I usually used to see pictures of him having royal lunches like these amidst the mountains and today I was with him too! Felt amazing! The eat energized us, and the serene view soothed our eyes. It was windy and I started having trouble with my fingers again trying to get them warm; also juggling with my smuff, beanie and the goggles. Nikhil was suggesting that I explore around and kept insisting on how I should handle my trouble and this got me irritated for a while. Anyways, after few moments of these rectification, I was fine and stood still witnessing the majestic glory; there was silence around, with only the sound of wind – all of these calming the mind. Peace!
After lunch, we started taking a lot pictures, experimenting with the Gopro, DSLR lens and our phone cameras. Many funny ones, few candid and few poses – lovely clicks and lovelier memories with them! Capturing Mt Baker, Mt Shuksan and several others in the background, it felt like me and Nikhil were having a mini post-wedding photo shoot at the Artist Point! What more could we have asked for; it was an amazing and an enriching hike all this while.
My very informative husband who was on this hike for the third time went on to describe further: a short 1.5 miles round trip to Huntoon Point is a great way of taking in more of the scenery; people also tend to extend their hike to eight miles by circumnavigating the Table-top mountain. He also added that Mt. Shuksan has always amazed him on his yearly hikes here and is a steep difficult summit point. Overall, it was well spent two hours at the Artist Point, with lots of clicks, snow-fights, panoramic capture experiment, photosphere click and we finally decided to head back so that we reach the parking area well before sunset. It was around 2:45pm and we started the descend. I loved walking on fresh snow ignoring the trails and my legs would go deep into the snow, at times till my knee! We kept walking down and my skids continued; again Nikhil to my rescue! I imitated a Snow-fairy motion and he captured those silly moments for me. We decided to take the steep section which we had skipped on our onward journey and I had another fun experience there. We saw a fellow-hiker glissading down this section and Nikhil asked if I wanted to try; we then decided that I would do it at half the height. Eventually, I glissaded down the fresh snow, and it was a thrilling 10+ second slide which I enjoyed a lot. While glissading, I was also busy trying to keep my feet up and not touching the snow, and handling my beanie & smuff which almost came off by the time I finished. There was considerable snow collected in my clothes that I had to put-off, after which I was fine to proceed 😛 Sai, Nikhil and my talks continued all-along as we recollected our journey till now. We had started back pretty late and headed down slowly, and there were very few fellow-hikers around. I kept looking back regularly to get a glimpse of where we had been, and the views kind-of kept calling me back each time! I was overwhelmed by the whole experience and a sense of deep satisfaction and sheer joy encircled me 🙂
It was 4:30pm when we reached the parking area to see it empty except for few cars, probably of people whom we saw camping on the hills overnight. We removed our gears, got back to normal attire and got back into the car, all set to drive back. The frozen Picture Lake was the last thing we saw, and it probably is much more beautiful when it is not frozen 😀 The drive back was the same highway with the mountain peaks visible all-along and my mind was still lingering amidst them, somewhere in the magical Artist Point! This was my first snowshoeing experience, an activity I certainly would like to re-do over and over again 🙂 With my hiker husband along, I am assured I surely will! Loads of love to him for making this superb trip happen!
This is the 3rd consecutive Thanksgiving long weekend where I have been staying in home state. I usually go out for long weekends but for various reasons, I end up spending Thanksgiving in Washington. Taking advantage of meetups and snow, I signed up for a hike even though the forecast was hardly good. It was raining in Seattle in the morning but things started to look promising during the drive to trailhead. The clouds were shining bright with the rays and we could see blue sky. I was excited to start with the hike asap since I wanted the views from the top. It was a short but steep trail and since I was ahead, Michael asked me to take care of navigation. I screwed it up in the beginning but was careful from thereon. Snow was with us right from the parking lot. Trail was slippery due to numerous boulders. We hiked in clouds for a while and the views when we were above the cloud level were spectacular. The views kept getting better and the summit offered nothing less.
We were between 2 bands of clouds and the near panoramic views were awesome. I hadn’t carried any lunch, so spent time capturing the beauty and started the descent. The hike down was much safer than I expected and we were back on the trailhead by 2 PM. I am thankful for being in this amazingly beautiful state.
