Hike: Blue Lake, camping, lake and dam and other stuff
There are many lakes called Blue Lake. I've been to two of them already in WA state, iirc, and this was the third, and... OMG. It is actually really blue!
Seriously, this was perhaps the hike with the best ease-to-reward ratio we've ever been on.
And camping was wonderful. Chilly, but so nice to be out.
Blue Lake
Distance: 4.4 miles
Elevation gain: 1050 ft
The plan was to get out early on Saturday, get to the trailhead, which is between Washington and Rainy Passes on Highway 20, ie about 4 hours out, hike, and then camp. Miraculously, it all pretty much worked out, except we got out a little bit later than we'd hoped, but still early.
We stopped for lunch at Diablo Dam. It's one of three dams in the system there, and Perry especially was thrilled that we got to drive over it. We told the kids we'd stop at the visitor center at the Gorge Dam on the way back if we had time.
The views from the road were great. We'd driven 20 plenty of times, but this year we managed full fall colour! The larches especially were beautiful, glowing golden yellow waaaay high up.
Trailhead, finally. It was packed. We did find parking and headed out. The trail starts out easy and actually continued that way. For that elevation gain it was one of the easiest trails we'd been on, gently graded, not too rocky or full of roots. A definite recommend.
The fact that the views were going to be great was driven home at about one mile in when we crossed the path of a long ago avalanche: you emerge from forest and get the first views of the granite ridge above.
We continued up. A while later we met two women hiking with three dogs. One of them was one of the most beautiful dogs I've ever seen: a German shepherd/Australian shepherd mix, with something else thrown in because his eyes were silvery white. Seriously, a dog out of a fantasy novel.
We crossed the lake's outflow on a log bridge, and there were were: Blue Lake.
Two minutes, and twenty photos made one thing clear: there was no way the photos were going to touch this place. Think: deep blue lake, granites walls, the Early Winter Spires, golden larches, and Liberty Bell peak. It was just... incredible. Something about it just touched me in a way few places do.
You can't see the blue of the lake here at all, but dh and the kids.
This one starts to come close, but still nowhere near as deep as the model!
Same here:
I think this may be the only photo that even comes close to capturing the depth of blue that I could see.
Reflection of Liberty Bell peak
I tried to get the larches glowing golden at the other side of the lake.
The Spires of Early Winter over Blue Lake
And here is the "autumn colour" shot, though dh likes the previous one better, if you go to Flickr.
The full set is here, there are loads more photos, some of them good, but also the bulk photos that dh plans to use to make his panorama shot. I do need to figure out how to link those.
Anyhow, we headed down, under blue skies and.... why, hello, the dog we met earlier! The beautiful dog we'd met on the way up was hanging out at the top of the trail. His owner had been on her way down, so we were surprised to see him at the lake. He was acting very clingy, and dh was concerned that something might have happened to his companions. Anyhow, we checked his tags, his name was Pokey, and with no prompting, he followed us down, looking quite miserable, and keeping very close to dh, who has a way with animals. The kids, I think were all secretly hoping that his owners wouldn't show up! As we walked further down, Pokey got perkier, which was nice, because he was so miserable when we were at the lake. We were almost at the trailhead when we met his owner, who was thrilled to see him! And not to have to walk all the way up to the lake to find him as well!
We got back to the car and drove a few miles further down Highway 20 to the campground we were planning on staying at. Since AC is taking outdoors eduction, and btw, going backpacking this week, dh and I pretty much let her set up the tent solo, which she almost got (I've gone it, it isn't easy), and later to start the stove. It was chilly, temps were probably in the high 30s, but we had gear so it wasn't too bad. We got dinner together, toasted marshmallows for 'smores, and had a nice evening. I went to sleep in my down sleeping bag, which is rated to 20F wearing silk long underwear, a poly tshirt, a light polartech pullover, and my polartech jacket. Wool socks. And a hat. We all slept in hats. It was that cold.
Next morning AC got up and started the stove, and they started getting breakfast together. I tried to stay in my sleeping bag for as long as possible, but eventually, I had to crawl out and face the day. It wasn't even too cold. We broke camp, AC doing much of the work and dh supervising, Perry, Linnea, and I walked down to the river to throw rocks! I like that. Much more fun than breaking camp!
On the way home, we stopped a good view point over what I think is Diablo Lake... though it could be Ross Lake too, I'm very unclear on where we were vs where they are. Both lakes are deep blue, and again, my photos don't come close.
We continued heading back west, and stopped at the Gorge power plan in Newhalem. We were able to get inside (OMG! Bathrooms! Warm bathrooms! With toilets that flush! and water to wash my hands! Warm water, even!), and look down on the generators. There was much explaining (for the nth time) about how a hydroelectric plant works, and what this or that was. Funniest part? A sign posted on one of the generator housings that just said: AVOID DEATH. We thought that was pretty cool!
The drive back home was uneventful, and we came home to find out that just because we'd taken a break didn't mean that real life had. Namely homework, and Stuff to be Purchased at REI needed to be dealt with, my MIL was over, the kids wanted to play outside but there was homework to do, and did I mention that AC has a humongo science project that is really a fucking ART project and that unlike her classmates, she doesn't have a four day weekend to do it because she is on a (required) backpacking trip this weekend? Sigh...
It was fun, though. I like hanging out with my kids, and my spouse, and we have a good time together, so it was a really nice family break, even if it was short.
Seriously, this was perhaps the hike with the best ease-to-reward ratio we've ever been on.
And camping was wonderful. Chilly, but so nice to be out.
Blue Lake
Distance: 4.4 miles
Elevation gain: 1050 ft
The plan was to get out early on Saturday, get to the trailhead, which is between Washington and Rainy Passes on Highway 20, ie about 4 hours out, hike, and then camp. Miraculously, it all pretty much worked out, except we got out a little bit later than we'd hoped, but still early.
We stopped for lunch at Diablo Dam. It's one of three dams in the system there, and Perry especially was thrilled that we got to drive over it. We told the kids we'd stop at the visitor center at the Gorge Dam on the way back if we had time.
The views from the road were great. We'd driven 20 plenty of times, but this year we managed full fall colour! The larches especially were beautiful, glowing golden yellow waaaay high up.
Trailhead, finally. It was packed. We did find parking and headed out. The trail starts out easy and actually continued that way. For that elevation gain it was one of the easiest trails we'd been on, gently graded, not too rocky or full of roots. A definite recommend.
The fact that the views were going to be great was driven home at about one mile in when we crossed the path of a long ago avalanche: you emerge from forest and get the first views of the granite ridge above.
We continued up. A while later we met two women hiking with three dogs. One of them was one of the most beautiful dogs I've ever seen: a German shepherd/Australian shepherd mix, with something else thrown in because his eyes were silvery white. Seriously, a dog out of a fantasy novel.
We crossed the lake's outflow on a log bridge, and there were were: Blue Lake.
Two minutes, and twenty photos made one thing clear: there was no way the photos were going to touch this place. Think: deep blue lake, granites walls, the Early Winter Spires, golden larches, and Liberty Bell peak. It was just... incredible. Something about it just touched me in a way few places do.
You can't see the blue of the lake here at all, but dh and the kids.
This one starts to come close, but still nowhere near as deep as the model!
Same here:
I think this may be the only photo that even comes close to capturing the depth of blue that I could see.
Reflection of Liberty Bell peak
I tried to get the larches glowing golden at the other side of the lake.
The Spires of Early Winter over Blue Lake
And here is the "autumn colour" shot, though dh likes the previous one better, if you go to Flickr.
The full set is here, there are loads more photos, some of them good, but also the bulk photos that dh plans to use to make his panorama shot. I do need to figure out how to link those.
Anyhow, we headed down, under blue skies and.... why, hello, the dog we met earlier! The beautiful dog we'd met on the way up was hanging out at the top of the trail. His owner had been on her way down, so we were surprised to see him at the lake. He was acting very clingy, and dh was concerned that something might have happened to his companions. Anyhow, we checked his tags, his name was Pokey, and with no prompting, he followed us down, looking quite miserable, and keeping very close to dh, who has a way with animals. The kids, I think were all secretly hoping that his owners wouldn't show up! As we walked further down, Pokey got perkier, which was nice, because he was so miserable when we were at the lake. We were almost at the trailhead when we met his owner, who was thrilled to see him! And not to have to walk all the way up to the lake to find him as well!
We got back to the car and drove a few miles further down Highway 20 to the campground we were planning on staying at. Since AC is taking outdoors eduction, and btw, going backpacking this week, dh and I pretty much let her set up the tent solo, which she almost got (I've gone it, it isn't easy), and later to start the stove. It was chilly, temps were probably in the high 30s, but we had gear so it wasn't too bad. We got dinner together, toasted marshmallows for 'smores, and had a nice evening. I went to sleep in my down sleeping bag, which is rated to 20F wearing silk long underwear, a poly tshirt, a light polartech pullover, and my polartech jacket. Wool socks. And a hat. We all slept in hats. It was that cold.
Next morning AC got up and started the stove, and they started getting breakfast together. I tried to stay in my sleeping bag for as long as possible, but eventually, I had to crawl out and face the day. It wasn't even too cold. We broke camp, AC doing much of the work and dh supervising, Perry, Linnea, and I walked down to the river to throw rocks! I like that. Much more fun than breaking camp!
On the way home, we stopped a good view point over what I think is Diablo Lake... though it could be Ross Lake too, I'm very unclear on where we were vs where they are. Both lakes are deep blue, and again, my photos don't come close.
We continued heading back west, and stopped at the Gorge power plan in Newhalem. We were able to get inside (OMG! Bathrooms! Warm bathrooms! With toilets that flush! and water to wash my hands! Warm water, even!), and look down on the generators. There was much explaining (for the nth time) about how a hydroelectric plant works, and what this or that was. Funniest part? A sign posted on one of the generator housings that just said: AVOID DEATH. We thought that was pretty cool!
The drive back home was uneventful, and we came home to find out that just because we'd taken a break didn't mean that real life had. Namely homework, and Stuff to be Purchased at REI needed to be dealt with, my MIL was over, the kids wanted to play outside but there was homework to do, and did I mention that AC has a humongo science project that is really a fucking ART project and that unlike her classmates, she doesn't have a four day weekend to do it because she is on a (required) backpacking trip this weekend? Sigh...
It was fun, though. I like hanging out with my kids, and my spouse, and we have a good time together, so it was a really nice family break, even if it was short.