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adamschneider Member
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 93 | TRs | Pics Location: Portland, OR |
I'm planning on heading up north next week to do some hikes around Mt. Baker; I'll probably stay in Bellingham. My main goal is finding wildflowers, but of course rugged scenery is always appreciated... and if there's some scrambling involved, even better. (I find a lot of interesting flowers while scrambling on and around summits.) I'm not a huge fan of 4-mile approaches through the forest.
My wildflower addiction means I usually average only about 1-1.5 mph over the course of the day, so two days probably just means two hikes, but sometimes I can squeeze in two in a day if they're shortish and close to each other.
So, anyway, if you could pick two off this list, which would you choose?
- Skyline Divide
- Heliotrope Ridge
- Yellow Aster Butte
- Winchester Mountain/High Pass (is the road still nasty?)
- Hannegan Peak
- Lake Ann
P.S. - I've already done Chain Lakes, which is why it and Ptarmigan Ridge are not on the list.
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Cyclopath Faster than light
Joined: 20 Mar 2012 Posts: 7697 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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Cyclopath
Faster than light
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Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:57 am
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I've seen miss flowers on Heliotrope than anywhere else in the area.
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Bowregard Member
Joined: 05 Feb 2019 Posts: 562 | TRs | Pics Location: Sammamish |
We were in the area last week.
Heliotrope has a great variety of flowers blooming. Here is a photo from that trail:
Anybody know what this one is called?
Skyline Divide has a lot blooming right now but I would choose Damfino Lakes/High Divide over that - Better road (albeit longer), less forest walk, and more variety in the meadows.
Road to Twin Lakes is still bad.
I would avoid Hannegan myself as you never know when the wind will blow the Bear Creek smoke your way.
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olderthanIusedtobe Member
Joined: 05 Sep 2011 Posts: 7687 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline |
You can't go wrong hiking along the Mt. Baker Highway. Maybe it's because I'm often there in fall rather than summer, but I don't recall seeing a lot of flowers on most of those hikes.
I do think Skyline Divide would be one of the better options from your list. Not sure there's much around Lake Ann. Agreed w/ another poster, anything that gets you along the High Divide would probably be good, various trailhead options for that. As mentioned Damfino Lakes is the easiest/shortest option to get you to the meadows. Yellow Aster Butte is a great hike, and there are meadowy areas, but I don't remember seeing a bunch of flowers up there (great fall colors though).
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adamschneider Member
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 93 | TRs | Pics Location: Portland, OR |
Bowregard wrote: | Here is a photo from that trail:
Anybody know what this one is called? |
Broad-leaf (or dwarf) fireweed: formerly Epilobium latifolium, now Chamaenerion latifolium.
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Bowregard Member
Joined: 05 Feb 2019 Posts: 562 | TRs | Pics Location: Sammamish |
Interesting - I never would have guessed fireweed. Based on the flower structure I would have thought it was some wild form of Fuchsia.
Thanks and good hunting.
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adamschneider Member
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 93 | TRs | Pics Location: Portland, OR |
Bowregard wrote: | Interesting - I never would have guessed fireweed. Based on the flower structure I would have thought it was some wild form of Fuchsia. |
Fuchsia and Epilobium (and whatever genus they've put fireweed in these days) are in the same family.
If you look closely at the flowers of broad-leaf fireweed, you'll see that they really do look like "normal" fireweed flowers. But they have more prominent red sepals, and the leaves are wider and bluish.
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