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adamschneider
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PostTue Aug 03, 2021 9:11 am 
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
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PostTue Aug 03, 2021 9:57 am 
I've seen miss flowers on Heliotrope than anywhere else in the area.

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Bowregard
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PostTue Aug 03, 2021 10:39 am 
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
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PostTue Aug 03, 2021 10:49 am 
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
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PostTue Aug 03, 2021 10:53 am 
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
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PostTue Aug 03, 2021 11:46 am 
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
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PostTue Aug 03, 2021 12:32 pm 
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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