Autumn in Skagit Valley and North Cascades

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One doesn’t normally associate the northwestern corner of the US with fall colors. New England the Mid-Atlantic states in the northeast are usually the focus of any autumn photo spread.

But autumn in Skagit Valley and North Cascades is not too shabby.

The valley and the rivers make wonderful spots for fall.

Double Rainbow, Fir Island
Gordon Skagit Farm
Sedro Woolley
Grandy Lake Sunset, Skagit County
Gordon Skagit Farm
Sedro Woolley Panorama
Fir Island
Berries
Skagit Valley Sunset
Skagit Valley Sunset
Sedro Woolley
Skagit Valley Barn
Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan

Up the valley a bit along the Baker and Skagit Rivers fall colors abound. Salmon spawn in the fall. The entire valley is lit up and on display!

The 2020 Washington State Night Sky Calendar is now on sale! Get your copy here.

Mt Baker from Baker Lake Road
North Fork, Skykomish River
Baker River
Mt Baker from Baker Lake Road
Baker River
Baker River
Baker River Trail footbridge
Mt Baker from Baker Lake Road
Baker River Trail
Baker Lake
Baker Lake
Mt Baker from Baker Lake Road
Baker River
Baker River Salmon
Baker River Bridge
Baker River
Baker River Trail

The main contributors to Fall here in the North Cascades are the blueberry/huckleberry bushes, which carpet the mountains in bright reds and the larch, who’s green needles turn bright orange in the first week or October. . .

North Cascades Photo Tours are also available!

Above Cascade Pass, North Cascades National Park
Mt Shuksan and Picture Lake
Doubtful Lake, North Cascades National Park
Artist Point
Lake Ann and Maple Pass
Lake Ann
Heather Pass
Washington Pass
Mt Baker from Artist Point
Twin Lakes
Heather Pass
Lake Ann and Maple Pass
Cutthroat Pass
Cutthroat Peak

Larch grow new green needles each spring, and in early October they turn orange and fall off! The elevation of the larch varies in Western Washington, usually you can find the larch between 5,000 and 7,000 ft elevation.

Fine Art Prints as well as Canvas Wraps are also available in a wide range of sizes and frames. Here is the Gallery Page.

Colchuck Lake, Enchantments
Prussik Peak, Enchantments
Amphitheater Mountain, Pasayten Wilderness
Blue Lake
Goats in the Enchantments
Early Winter Spires
Early Winter Spires
Amphitheater Mountain, Pasayten Wilderness
North Cascades Pond
Perfection Lake, Enchantments
Prussik Peak, Enchantments
Windy Peak, Pasayten Wilderness
Cathedral Peak
Cathedral Peak, Upper Cathedral Lake

Autumn Colors along the Baker River

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In October the North Cascades change color. The autumn colors along the Baker River are magnificent.

Depending upon the year the river is filled with salmon in October.

The views of Mount Baker from the Baker Lake road are not too bad…

Everything about a hike along the river on a fall day is perfect, the temperature, the lack of bugs, the late fall-afternoon light, the leaves, the colors, the smells…I could go on and on…

The trail starts at the end of the Baker Lake Road. Here is the link with the details.

Be sure to have a Northwest Forest Pass to park at the trailhead. You can get one in Sedro-Woolley at the Chamber Office on Metcalf Street and at the North Cascades National Park / Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Office on Highway 20 in Sedro-Woolley.

Field Trip to Artist Point

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Last Thursday I took 47 students on a field trip to Artist Point. It was awesome!

Artist Point is the coolest place you can drive a car here in our state, and on a fall day with nice weather its unforgettable. Located at the end of the Mount Baker Highway, at more than 5,000 feet elevation) Artist Point is right between Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan.

The weather was perfect and we had a blast. Most of the kids had never been to Artist Point before, in fact many had never been in the mountains until today!

Just the bus ride up the switch backs at the end of the highway was breath taking…

This all started with Career Day; I was invited to the Burlington Edison High School to present what life is like for a professional photographer. I came and did the talk twice and the photo teacher started to recruit me, he was retiring soon and suggested I take his spot.

So now I am the Photography Teacher at the Burlington Edison High School! This is my 3rd year. I have a full schedule of Photography Classes, this semester I have about 165 students.

The school has about 40 Canon Rebel DSLRs; a wide selection of lenses, studio lights, Photoshop… so I can teach the students to take and edit cool pics. And field trips!

We stopped at Picture Lake for some shots of Mt Shuksan…

Often I go on a field trip and take few images, spending most time advising, but the light and setting was so stunning that managed to snap a few pics…

Picture Lake is right in the middle of the two ski areas. From there we drove up to the end of the highway, at Artist Point

Our next Field Trip adventure is Oct. 16th and I cant wait!

 

Best Fall Hikes in the North Cascades

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I regularly get requests from magazines asking for images, they specify which places, season, weather, or what ever fits their plans for upcoming issues. If you have any good images of say, Crater Lake at night, then you submit, if they like, your image gets published.

Best Fall Hikes, or October Hikes was one of the categories needed.

I love fall colors, love the lack of bugs and the crisp air for hiking. Its funny, in early July just when access to the high country is about to start, to be thinking ahead to fall. But I spent two days locating and editing images…

Best Fall Hikes in the North Cascades

The North Cascades offer a unique version of fall, The Larch. The mountain larch, or Tamarack, looks like a regular evergreen in the spring or summer, but in early October the needles turn bright orange, and then fall off.

The effect is stunning. The sharp orange, interspersed with greens and browns, maybe a few white clouds in an bright blue sky…are you getting the idea? Its a color junkies dream.

All of these hikes are along (or close to) the Cascade Loop. Check their web site for lots of ideas of more adventures, as well as food/lodging.

Here are the 3 Best Fall Hikes in the North Cascades

The Enchantments

How can you not start with the Enchantments? This is one of the most magical places to hike anywhere in the world. And in early October it just explodes. If you go, plan to spend several days. You’ll not soon forget it! Yes, its a pain to get a permit, and yes, it is a brutal approach to get up and into the Core of the Enchantments with photo gear and 5 days of food, but who ever said Perfection Lake was easily attained? Book a night or two at the Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort in Leavenworth to aid your recovery!

Here are a few images from a recent October trip.

The next Best Fall Hike is another local favorite. Early October weekends will find this trail head packed to overflowing, with cars out along both sides of Highway 20.

Blue Lake and Washington Pass

Larch seem to like an elevation around 6,000 to 8,000 feet. You can see them here draped like a necklace over the neck line of Liberty Bell. Washington Pass, located on the North Cascades Highway offers spectacular views of Liberty Bell Mountain and the north side of Early Winter Spires.

The Blue Lake trail, located about a quarter mile from Washington Pass Overlook, is a short, moderate trail which skirts along the base and then along the back side of the monolith. Once you get to Blue Lake the views back to Early Winter Spires are impossibly beautiful.

Finally for the 3rd Best Fall Hikes in the North Cascades…This last one is a bit further afield, its a long drive over to Eastern Washington, up through Omak, north of Tonasket and on to the Pasayten Wilderness. But the trail, though long, has minimal elevation change and the payoff, at Upper Cathedral Lake will only make you want to stay longer.

Upper Cathedral Lake, Pasayten Wilderness

In some places you’ll find Larch, often interspersed with other trees. Sort of sprinkled about. But here in the Upper Cathedral Lakes basin its almost solid larch. and as you are imagining, its like someone lit the place on fire.The trail takes you up to Sunny Pass, through Horseshoe Basin and along the Boundary Trail (the Canada Border is a stones throw away). This section of the trail is also part of the much longer Pacific Northwest Trail.

 

Stehekin Weekend

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Stehekin Weekend

We’ve made it onto the ferry early, needing a seat with table so that the boys, Max and Dawson, can get their algebra homework done. A 4-hour ride on the Lady of the Lake II will get us into Chelan just before days end, and we’ll start the drive back over the North Cascades Highway, west to home.

I have been invited to spend the weekend here teaching photographic workshops. I get room and board for the weekend for me and my crew. 32 years ago, in what seemed like another lifetime I caught a greyhound to Chelan, hiked up and over Park Creek Pass and upon reaching the North Cascades Hwy at Colonial Creek, hitchhiked back home. I relive this tip briefly as I board the boat, time traveling as I sit.

My last 2 trips to Stehekin were hike-in affairs, once crossing Cascade Pass and hiking down past Cottonwood Camp along the now abandoned upper Stehekin Road, and more recently time hiking south on the PCT from Highway 20, to High Bridge.

Although hiking is by far my preferred mode of transport, the Lady of the Lake is pleasant, a small town community feel abounds as a theme from when we get on the boat. Seating aboard the lady is Open and you’re free to roam about, taking in the views of the newly snow frosted summits popping up above the lake. Orange larches form a necklace just below the snowfields of the peaks. Not for the first time today I wish I was up, hiking there along the Chelan Summit, among the larches and brown meadows.

The sky is interspersed with clouds and sky as we make our way north, stopping to pick up a few more people here, dropping off a handful of backpackers there. One last stop, in Holden Village, sees a lot of people and goods on and off the boat.

Arriving at Stehekin Landing the fall weather was warm and pleasant, and there was quite a festive group awaiting us at the dock. The permanent population of the village is about 100 souls, but during the season the numbers swell with lodge staff. This is the last big weekend in Stehekin for the season. Mid October sees the weather change, wetter and colder skies are ahead. I talk to several of the seasonal staff, asking where they will head off too next week, one is headed to Key West, another to Taos, New Mexico, to work the winter season at a ski resort, and another has plans that will take her to New Zealand.

Part of the reason for the swell of visitors this weekend is the list of cool events including the annual October Apple Harvest and the Buckner Music Festival.

The orchard is located about 10 miles north of town, along the river road. We arrive Saturday afternoon among a throng of busy apple pickers, slicers and mashers, all working in unison to press as much cider as they can. A camp stove sits nearby, a bottomless pot warming the cider beckons.

The look and feel of the farm is magnificent. The people living here have a marvelously genuine and friendly demeanor and one can’t help imagine life, living here in the valley. Yeah, I think I would like this.

There is a band striking up the music, a pot luck lunch and a bonfire. Besides drinking my share of warm cider I interest myself capturing images of all the old farm equipment scattered about. The boys are happy to be here, but soon are urging me to head out, they have a hankerin’ to visit the Stehekin Pastry Company as soon as humanly possible. We make our way back to the river road and hitchhike back to town.

You can’t drive a car to Stehekin. The ferry, float plan or afoot are the three ways to arrive. Any cars that are here were brought by ferry and generally stay here. The couple who pick up us 3 scruffy hitchhikers are from Chelan and have a cabin here, which the call home most all summer. This is there last weekend as well. Out on a drive looking for bears they have not seen any today.

We joyfully get out and head into the Pastry Company, luxuriating in the smells. Now hard choices are before us. Which delicious treat to choose? Mountain bars, Almond-Apple pastry, sinful brownies and much more entice us. Several of each sounds good, along with a triple mocha and 2 hot chocolates.

The red National Park Bus arrives and we catch a ride back to the landing along with a dozen or so people fresh off the boat who have just returned from a trip to Rainbow Falls. We are welcomed aboard with our snacks and hot drinks.

Things are nice and easy here in the North Cascades National Park!

The food at the lodge is awesome; we all order the Steak and Frittes, seeing how much we can eat before buttons start flying. The take home containers are full!

Friday night brings the Stehekin Valley Music Festival, we arrive at a new looking log cabin in the dark and there about 35 people crammed in, listening with rapturous intent to the different musicians. I am outside, circumnavigating the house, looking for the nice shot of the Milky Way above.

I am here to teach several courses one on composition and another on night sky imaging. My night sky class is scheduled for tomorrow night, but I am pretty sure we will not be seeing stars then, there is a storm forecast for Saturday. So I ask some two people outside in the dark for a nearby spot to go for a nice view of the lake and sky, they drop me off at the trailhead and point me on the trail. As I hike up the hill I am surprised to see I am walking through a camp site full of weekend revelers. Once my imaging is complete and I am on the way back I am accosted with questions of what sort of firewood I am toting. I explain that it’s a tripod and before I know it I am invited under a canopy tent for some scotch. My 4 new ‘ladies night out friends’ share stories and lots of laughter before I make my way back to the lodge and the boys.

The incessant rain on Saturday did little to dampen our spirits, we discovered a Rec Room for Lodge guests, replete with satellite TV, games, puzzles and a pool table. This is a welcome relief, because my aura of coolness faded a bit when we arrived and discovered that there would be no internet connection.

This morning I am up before sunrise, out to see what the sky may bring. Fall is a wonder of rich colors. I walk through empty Purple Creek Campground and north along the road. Another great meal and a short hike later we are ready to get on the boat.

Good-bye, North Cascades, you’ll see me again soon.

Baker River Trail – Fall Colors

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The Baker River Trail is at its best in the fall. The cool, clean, crisp air refresh your mind while the bright colors enliven the soul.

The trail is easy to get to, just follow the Baker Lake Road north from Highway 20 to its end (You need a NW Forest Pass to park). The trail starts right there and meanders along the west side of the river. The leaves on the ground create a magic carpet for your feet.

You’ll pass some huge grand trees, actually not just trees but patriarchs of the forest, old wise creatures standing guard over the River.

After only a quarter mile there is a suspension bridge spanning the azure waters. Go out on the span for wonderful views downstream as the river bends and the late afternoon light illuminates the colors on the east bank.

Continuing along your path the trail approaches the river at several points where you can easily scramble down 5 or 6 feet of embankment out on to gravel bars affording magnificent views of the wild river. Fall brings salmon to spawn and you can see their bright red bodies darting and splashing.

But don’t take my word for it, go see for yourself!

If you’d like to go on a Guided Fall Photo Tour, here are all the details!

Winchester Lookout

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Twin Lakes Panorama

Twin Lakes Panorama

Last Saturday I made it up (finally!) to Twin Lakes and the Winchester Mountain Lookout.

Winchester Mountain Lookout

Winchester Mountain Lookout

Located on the north side of the Mount Baker Highway (Route 542) the trail is approached via the Twin Lakes Road. It’s 7 miles from the highway to the start of the trail, 4.5 miles are easy for any car, and the last 2.5 miles require a high clearance vehicle, its a bit rough!

Weekends in the late summer and early fall will find more than 200 cars and pickups parked along the road over the last 3 miles. There is a veritable network of trails originating along the Twin Lakes Road such as Yellow Aster Butte, Tomyhoi Peak, High Pass and more.

Twin Lakes

Twin Lakes

If your vehicle can make it up to Twin Lakes there are camp sites along both lake shore, out houses and camp fire rings/grates. I saw quite a few parties there car camping with bikes for kids, small boats for fishing along with lawn chairs and coolers.

Here the road ends and the hiking begins. From the parking lot you are right in front of Winchester Mountain, and you can see way up above the flag flapping next to the lookout. Winchester Lookout Flag 3

The trail zigzags up the mountain side, 1,300 feet in about 2 miles to the summit. The lookout tower is open to the public, and you can spend the night there. If you get up there and its already taken there are plenty of spots close by to pitch tents.

The view from the top is choked with stark jagged peaks. Goat Mountain, Mount Larrabee, the Pleiades, Tomyhoi Peak crowd the horizon. Mt Shuksan and Mount Baker loom up about all other summits.

The crisp air is perfect for hiking up a steep slope and the fall colors create a luscious palette.

The Winchester Mountain Lookout was clean and spacious, sporting a table, chairs, bed and a wide selection of books.

Saturday was the new moon, and one of the reasons of our visit was to hope for clear skies at night to capture images of the Milky Way.

The low angle of the setting sun set the blue berry bushes on fire.

Carpet of Color at Winchester Mountain

Fall Colors from Winchester Mountain 2

Fall Colors from Winchester Mountain 3

Fall Colors from Winchester Mountain

Sunset from Winchester Mountain

Winchester Lookout Sunset

An hour after sunset the sky exploded with stars.

I opted to sleep out under them, with no tent.

The early morning found the mountain surrounded by clouds. Just as I arose the sun breached the canopy and the sun dance atop the summits across the valley commenced.

Starry Sky from Winchester Mountain

Isolation Lake, Enchantments Alpine Lakes Wilderness

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Isolation Lake is the first or last lake you visit on your trip into the Enchantment Basin, depending upon which direction you are hiking the loop.

Campers along Isolation's shore

Campers along Isolation’s shore

If you managed to hike up Aasgard Pass (more than 2,000 ft. elevation gain in less that a mile) than its your first.

Camped at Isolation Lake, Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Camped at Isolation Lake, Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Isolation Lake Panorama

Isolation Lake Panorama

If took the long route past Snowy Lake, then Isolation will be your last lake in the high country before heading down and out.
But either way, its a fantastic place.

Isolation Lake

Isolation Lake

High above timber line it is a world of rocks and ice.

Isolation Lake, Enchantments

Isolation Lake, Enchantments

Blue, gray and white are the colors here.
The air is crisp, sharp, clean.
A meadow is nearby with a small copse of larch hiding the toilet.

Isolation Lake

Isolation Lake

Sunset brings new colors, reds and orange, magenta and violet.

Isolation Lake

Isolation Lake

 

Later the stars appear.

Prints are available here!

Camped at Isolation

Camped at Isolation

Dome in a moon scape

Dome in a moon scape

Isolation is a world of wonder.

Aasgard Pass and Isolation Lake, Enchantments

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This October I spent 5 days in the Enchantments, we hiked into Colchuck Lake, camped, and the next day hiked up Aasgard Pass to Isolation Lake. Here are a few images from the trip!

Aasgard Pass, looking from the boulder field

Aasgard Pass, looking from the boulder field

Aasgard Pass, the "trail" headed up!

Aasgard Pass, the “trail” headed up!

Aasgard Pass, hiking up

Aasgard Pass, hiking up

Colchuck Lake, from Aasgard Pass

Colchuck Lake, from Aasgard Pass

Camped at Isolation Lake

Camped at Isolation Lake

Isolation Lake

Isolation Lake

Isolation Lake, panorama shot

Isolation Lake, panorama shot

Isolation Lake at sunset

Isolation Lake at sunset

Camped at Isolation Lake, nighttime!

Camped at Isolation Lake, nighttime!

Camped at Isolation Lake

Camped at Isolation Lake

Prusik Peak in the Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness

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Prusik Peak in the fall is an alluring sight. The larches turn bright orange and if the weather co-operates the blue skies punctuate the landscape.
I luckily won the lottery for a permit this fall and last week I spent 5 days in the Enchantments, exploring and ogling the colors.

Prusik Peak above Perfection Lake

Prusik Peak above Perfection Lake

Prusik Peak and Gnome Tarn

Prusik Peak and Gnome Tarn

Prusik Peak Reflected

Prusik Peak Reflected

Prusik Peak and Stones

Prusik Peak and Stones